James Bryce
By Dana Ferguson
A MISSING schoolgirl who ran off with her married maths teacher has been found in France following a massive manhunt.
Megan Stammers, 15, was picked up by police in a Bordeaux shopping centre while walking hand-in-hand with Jeremy Forrest on Friday afternoon.
The schoolgirl is now under police protection while 30-year-old Forrest has been arrested on suspicion of child abduction.
The pair disappeared last Thursday, leaving Britain on a cross-Channel ferry, prompting police in the UK to issue a European Arrest Warrant amid suggestions they were heading for Spain.
In a statement, police said: “They were found today (Friday) at 12:15pm UK time. Forrest has been arrested and Megan has been taken into protection.
“Their families have been informed and arrangements will now be made for Megan and Jeremy’s safe return.”
On a Facebook page set up to help the search, well-wishers expressed their relief at the news Megan would be returning home.
“Forrest has been arrested on suspicion of child abduction.”
Ridiculous. Does she look like she has been abducted, walking hand-in-hand? If you had been abducted and you were walking in a public area, as they were, you’d make a break for it and scream your head off shouting for help.
Mr Forrest made a massive error here, of course, but abduction it is not.
One of the problems is the use of the word “Abduction”. It can mean this technical taking of a minor out of the control of its parents, right through to the archetypal muttering swarthy foreigner, stooping and walking with a limp preying on young children – a stereotype which exists only in the imagination, I hasten to add. Both get put in the same category for statistical purposes, and Charities and “Funds” use the confusion to collect money from people who do not know the difference.