BISHOP Bell Church of England School missed multiple
opportunities to protect a pupil who was eventually abducted out of
the country by her teacher, a sharply critical serious-case review
(SCR) has found.
The review, published on Monday, was commissioned by the chair
of the East Sussex Local Safeguarding Children Board in January,
three months after the abducted pupil - referred to in the report
as Child G - was found in Bordeaux with Jeremy Forrest, a
30-year-old maths teacher at Bishop Bell C of E School, Eastbourne
(News, 5 October 2012). In June, Mr Forrest was jailed for
five-and-a-half years for child ab- duction and five counts of
sexual activity with a child (News, 28 June). Child G was 14 years
old when the relationship began, and 15 when they left the
country.
The report found that evidence of an inappropriate relationship
first emerged in February 2012, during a school trip to America, on
which Mr Forrest was present.
In July, two former students reported concerns about the
relationship. Two months later, the father of another pupil
contacted the police, reporting that Child G had an inappropriate
photograph of Mr Forrest on her phone. This led to an investigation
under formal child-protection procedures. Two days later, Child G
was reported missing. They were apprehended in France just over a
week later.
The review is critical of the school's failure to listen to
voices of concern. "The response to the situation appears to have
been determined entirely from the perspective of a teacher at risk
of false allegations," it reads. "All the specialist and senior
staff in the school seem to have reconstructed events into
misconduct by Child G. Mr K became the victim."
A safeguarding review commissioned by the school and completed
in April did not find evidence of any "significant or systemic
failings". But the SCR concludes that some of the failings it
identifies are "both significant and systemic".
In a letter sent on Monday to the lead member for children's
services, Sylvia Tidy, and the interim director of children's
services at East Sussex County Council, Ged Rowney, the Minister
for Children and Families, Edward Timpson, wrote: "For a school so
comprehensively to fail to protect a vulnerable teenager from a
manipulative adult . . . is an abrogation of leadership and
responsibility."
On Monday, Terry Boatwright, executive head teacher at Bishop
Bell, said that many of the recommendations had already been
implemented.