Tom Rawstorne commentary on Jeremy Forrest trial: An affair that shattered a bond of trust Until his trial Jeremy Forrest had not seen girl since his arrest in France Girl, 16, said she gave him little choice but to accompany her abroad She seems prepared to wait for him while he serves inevitable jail term Until his trial, Jeremy Forrest had not set eyes on his schoolgirl lover in the nine months since his arrest by French gendarmes. Back then, the pair mouthed "I love you" to each other before he was driven away for questioning about their eight days on the run. Yesterday they said their goodbyes in exactly the same fashion - this time in the distinctly unromantic setting of Lewes Crown Court. Failed marriage: Jeremy Forrest, 30, with his photographer wife Emily, 32. Raised in Chislehurst, Kent, her parents are partners in an optician's practice. Growing up she was an arty, creative, 'geeky' type The guilty verdict came despite the now 16-year-old's testimony that she had given Forrest, 30, little choice but to accompany her to France. In the witness box - fully made up and with her long, dark hair freshly straightened - she continually stroked a silver necklace, the one she had worn on the run. "I don't think he wanted to take me anywhere," she told the jury. Once I had an idea in my head nobody was going to stop me, not Jeremy, not anybody. Claiming she felt suicidal at the time, she added: "He was concerned that if I went on my own I would be in danger so he said it would be better if he came with me." The testimony cut little ice with the jury and only time will tell what impact Forrest's inevitable prison sentence will have on their chances of resuming their relationship. For her part, the teenager seems prepared to wait as long as it takes. But anyone who has listened to the full details of the court case will struggle to square what went on between this pair with "love." It was more the satisfying of the sexual needs of a man willing to abuse his position of authority to take the virginity of a girl half his age. The girl was just 14 when Forrest first targeted her, bombarding her with flattery, sordid texts and half-naked photos of himself, followed by kisses in the classroom. When she turned 15, they started having sex. This took place at the home he shared with his wife, whom he lied about having split from. Often she was still dressed in school uniform and often they used no contraception. It was no surprise then that prosecuting barrister Richard Barton was at pains to point out Forrest was a paedophile who groomed his young victim to sate his "carnal lust." Failed musician: Forrest had wanted to be a pop star. Only time will tell what impact his inevitable prison sentence will have on the chances of resuming his relationship with the schoolgirl "This is not Romeo and Juliet," he said. This is a case of gross and long-term breach of trust. In the months that have passed since they were so publicly separated, the two individuals in this sordid modern-day drama have filled their days very differently. For the girl there have been GCSEs and time for "normal" teenage things - get a nose-piercing, post dozens of pictures of herself online, go to gigs and visit her grandmother. Forrest, meanwhile, has been locked up on remand in HMP Lewes where he has passed the time helping inmates with their reading, writing and maths. Handcuffed: Forrest is taken away from Lewes Crown Court. The girl was just 14 when he first targeted her Ironically, it was during extra maths tuition that he first drew the attention of his young paramour, a troubled girl who was self harming and suffering from an eating disorder. Having been raised by her mother and stepfather (her parents split shortly after her birth) she was unhappy when that relationship also came to an end. Her mother subsequently met a man with whom she became pregnant. "I didn't get on with her very well, I didn't like her, she wasn't supportive," she said of her mother in evidence to court. When there's a divorce going on, the attention in the family is on the parents, not the children. Forrest, however, was all ears. Born in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, he moved with his family to Orpington, Kent, where he later performed in bands and had ambitions to become a rock star, before training as a teacher. He landed his first job at Bishop Justus School in Bromley where he worked until July 2009. There he gained a reputation of being "cool and trendy," and was happy for pupils to call him Jez, his nickname. One former pupil, who was in Forrest's tutor group for four years, told the Mail he used to text her in his spare time, send her online messages and treat her as his "favourite." "He was very shy but seemed more outgoing around his students," she said. We'd all go on his blog and listen to his music - it was weird seeing your teacher like that. Some of my friends fancied him - but he's not my type. On his lunch breaks, he would stay in his room and listen to music or help children who were struggling. He didn't go to the staff-room very much with the other teachers, he kept himself to himself. By then he was already in a relationship with Emily Faulder, 32. This elfin-faced woman, whom the court heard had her own emotional vulnerabilities, would go on to become his wife. Captured on video: CCTV image of the pair escaping on a ferry from Dover to Calais last September Growing up she was an arty, creative, "geeky" type, who spent much of her time drawing and writing. When she befriended Forrest, she would help him design his CD covers and watch him perform in pubs. In 2009 the couple moved to East Sussex, settling in the village of Ringmer. While Forrest took a post at Bishop Bell C of E School in Eastbourne, she took up photography. In April 2011, the couple married in Brighton. Emily meticulously planned the ceremony with a "mint green, peaches and cream" vintage theme followed by a honeymoon in St Lucia. While she described it as "the best day of my life," Forrest's friends say he was an unhappy newlywed who described his life as being "miserable, lonely and depressing." He was very shy but seemed more outgoing around his students. Some of my friends fancied him Former pupil, who was in Forrest's tutor group for four years He turned his attentions to his troubled young charge, playing the tortured soul to perfection, writing angst-filled songs and tattooing his arms with Nirvana song lyrics. By that Christmas, the girl had developed a major crush on him. By February last year, when they found themselves on a school trip to Los Angeles the teenager was ripe for Forrest's picking. While the girl would claim that any attention he showed to her was entirely innocent, others remember it differently. A close friend of hers recalled: "When we were on the plane, he took off his wedding ring and said: "I had a falling-out with my wife and things aren't great between us. I'm sleeping on the sofa. He sat next to her for the whole flight. They spent all their time together. Another teacher saw them holding hands at Disneyland. On their return home, instead of realising things had gone too far and calling a halt to proceedings, Forrest actively encouraged the relationship, while lying to anyone who dared challenge him about it. First the pair started texting, then communicating via Twitter. Photos were exchanged. The 14-year-old sent him a picture of her naked breasts. He sent her one of himself lying on a sofa with his hands in his underpants. Family: Forrest's sister Carrie Hanspaul (left) and his mother Julie Forrest (right) at Lewes Crown Court Soon afterwards they exchanged their first kiss. Again he was the instigator, sending her a message on Twitter that said: "I've got something to tell you tomorrow." In a statement to police the schoolgirl recalled: "I went into school early in the morning. She described turning up early to class for four consecutive days in May until there was a time when they could be alone. Asked about that first kiss, she said: "I remember one day being in his classroom, it was just me and him and he said "I really want to kiss you" and I said "I really want to kiss you too" because that's what I wanted." Shortly after she turned 15, the maths teacher took her to his house while his wife was away. He showed her around, cooked dinner and the pair slept side by side in the spare room, apparently not having sex. I went into school early in the morning. That's when things became serious' What schoolgirl told police That would change in July when the youngster visited the house once again and Forrest took her virginity. She had told her mother she was seeing a friend. In the weeks that followed, they had sex on numerous occasions, either in hotels as Mr and Mrs Forrest or in his Ford Fiesta. According to a friend, they would meet straight after school, the girl still wearing her uniform. "One time she told me they went to a big shopping centre, I think it was Bluewater," she said. They went to the cinema, then for a meal and stayed in a hotel. Seven or eight times she said. There can be no doubt that Forrest knew he was doing wrong. Not only were there the numerous if wholly ineffective warnings from the school but he himself even researched online how long he could face behind bars for having sex with a child. None of it deterred him. Instead he tried to justify what he was doing with the rationale of a love-sick teenager - not a teacher. "About a week ago, I had a bit of a moral dilemma to deal with, both internally and externally," he mused last summer on a blog. And the overriding question it left me with was: How do we, how should we, define what's right or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable? Trial: A court artist's drawing of Forrest sitting in the dock at Lewes Crown Court. While being locked up on remand in HMP Lewes he has passed the time helping inmates with their reading, writing and maths I came to a few different conclusions, mainly that actually we get a lot of things wrong, but I was satisfied that if you can look yourself in the mirror and know that, under all the front, you are a good person, that you should have faith in your own judgment. Would a good person go on to afflict such pain and hurt on so many people? In mid-September, police received a tip-off that the teacher and his pupil were exchanging inappropriate text messages. On September 19, they visited the girl's home and despite her denials took away her mobile phone for examination. The following day the pair fled to France, a plan the girl claims was her idea. But it was Forrest who booked tickets on the Dover to Calais ferry in his and his wife's name and who furnished the girl with his wife's passport. As for his wife, the way he treated her could hardly have been more cowardly or more callous. I went to bed and Jeremy kind of tucked me in and he told me that he loved me Emily Forrest The evening before going on the run he took Emily out for a pizza after which the pair returned to the marital home. "I went to bed and Jeremy kind of tucked me in and he told me that he loved me," she told the court in evidence punctuated by tears and delivered from behind a screen. When I left in the morning I was in quite a good mood so I was like pestering him in bed, just being silly, just singing. That message was sent minutes after Forrest and his lover boarded the ferry. He then threw the phone into the sea. As for the family of the girl, the week the pair were missing was one of barely imaginable stress and fear. "I thought she was dead," the girl's mother admitted in court. Not that she and Forrest seemed to much care about the chaos they left in their wake. They regarded their time on the run as one big adventure. They drew up fake CVs and started to write journals which the girl thought could later be turned into a book. Maybe, but whatever the girl and Forrest think the future holds, history suggests the story of a maths teacher and his teenage lover is unlikely to have a happy ending.