Too feel devastated for the wife of the teacher who has run off to France with his 15 year old pupil?

[chipsandmushypeas]

What on earth went through his head when he decided to do this?! The poor woman has taken all her social networks down out of humiliation I presume. link

Crazy.

I used to often travel abroad with friends families for holidays and friends and cousins used to come on holiday with us. Don't recall any written permission having to be given

Bochead they barely glance at passports of people leaving the UK don't they though. Megan and the teacher were in a car, at the ferry terminal. No doubt she was sitting in the passenger seat so away from the window of the booth with the immigration person in. Unless her passport was immediately indentifiable as a child's (ie a different colour etc) they wouldn't have known without scrutinising the details on the passport. IME they don't usually. It's just a glance. Especially on the evening crossings.

I think maybe he had planned to take her away or a weekend and then come back and keep it all secret but obviously now has all gone pear shaped.

It does seem odd though. You can take your own kids out of the country if someone who shares PR objects can you?
But you can have no PR and take one out?

Although it would be hard to police every single child going out of the country, with the amount of child exploitation and trafficking we should find a way.

I have also travelled abroad under the age of 16 (though that was a while ago) as an unaccompanied minor and with friends parents. We carried no written consent. I think it's a crime to defy parental consent, ie if they explicitly say I do not allow you to go abroad with this man, but I'm not sure if it's against the law to leave without written agreement.

But the coppers statement on that link is really tame in it's language. They seem to be taking a very softly softly approach, he says to the teacher "we don't think this has gone the way you expected", so perhaps it was meant to be more of a gesture - hence the return ticket, but things got carried away.

I'm still not condoning him though... any idiot knows you can't do what he's done.

When we went to Italy in "77 and "83 (i was 4 when we went the first time and 10 the second) i was on my dads passport and DB was on my mums passport.
But that was many years ago and i think the reason they stopped that was to stop one parent taking a child out of the country without the other parents consent in the event of a seperation or divorce.

When we took a ferry with the kids this summer I had to confirm I was their mother as they have a different surname to me, my eldest is 15. They have been abroad without a parent (with other relative or school) but then need note signed by both parents to carry saying they have permission to leave.

when my uncle "kidnapped" his two children, the only thing he'd done according to the police was he'd broken his court agreed access agreement. Maybe they were just following a softly softly approach because it was a devastating time for all involved.

On the other hand they may have booked a return ticket to make it look more like they were just going for the weekend incase they were questioned at the port. Easier for him to say that he's her brother/cousin/etc and we're visiting family if they have a return ticket for a few days time.

The police have to take a very softly softly approach because this stupid twat is caught up in some romantic fantasy (from his msgs etc) and they don't always end well.

It seems incredibly stupid. There is no way this was going to do anything other than end his teaching career and get him on the child sex offenders register. People that stupid shouldn't be teaching, aside from the morality of him abusing his position of trust.

Of course they are taking the softly softly approach until they get her back. As they do with all kidnappers.

They are hardly going to say "bring her back so we can slam you into jail" - he will run faster.

I agree it might have been a planned weekend away that has gone badly wrong - in which case, at least he will now be caught.

And I'm not surprised they weren't stopped - what I am saying is that he has committed the crime of taking a minor out of the country without the permission of her parents (just for those who are saying he might not have had sex with her yet and therefore isn't a criminal ).

Oh God TheOneAndOnly stop saying I'm condoning this man's actions. I didn't say that at all. Blimey. All I'm saying is in my line of work I've seen more of these kinds of press conferences than I care and the language they have used is very different to that which they usually do when they are gravely concerned for a child's welfare. This last statement in no way reflects my opinion of the man by the way. Just to reinforce that.

You keep saying he hasn't committed a crime. I'm saying he has.

That's all.

You said I can't believe anyone thinks that any part of this is ok, or has any sympathy for him whatsoever I don't. You were accusing me of having sympathy for him which I don't. I will concede on the taking a child without the parents explicit consent.

No I wasn't, or at least I didn't mean you specifically [baffled]. I was saying some people on this thread do. And more on the newspaper comments as well.

The only think I was arguing with you about was the "as far as the police are concerned he hasn't committed a crime yet". I think he has committed more than one crime, and I think the police are being careful what they say as they would in any kidnap case - they don't want to drive the kidnapper to desperate measures.

I have just had a chilling thought, when dd and ds started school they had consent forms to enable the school to take them out of school on day trip walks to the library and that sort of things. Would these forms enable him to take her out of school

Who are the people on this thread who think this is ok? I certainly haven't seen any.

Paranoid much mchappypant - do you really think the school would back him in saying he had permission!

I don't think the school would help him, imagine the uproar

I bet the school are already advertising for a new teacher. They'll wash their hands of him so fast his head will spin.

Some people on the thread have referred to it as being an affair, some people have said 15 year olds can look mature, and one at least said he was an idiot in love, not a predator.

The comments on the Daily Mail site were shocking earlier. Though some seem to have disappeared .

I feel sorry for his wife too, but I think in some ways it's good she hasn't had children with him yet - god that sounds awful, I hope you all know what i mean at least she can move on and never have to see him again. I hope the young girl is okay too and her family.

Just had a look at the other parenting site. You're not wrong mrsD

Something on the lines of ' she's 15 so she should know right from wrong it's not fair to put all the blame on him ' blardy blah.

oh fgs, she is a vulnerable GIRL, below age of consent and hasn't even left school and he is 30 in a position of trust and power
wtf is wrong with people?