Jeremy Forrest's sister's comments.

[Jayne3474]

Sorry mail link (!):

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2347879/My-brother-paedophile-loves-girl-abducted-Jeremy-Forrests-sister-says-family-support-couple-asked-looked-jailed.html

aibu to think she has a point about the paedophile bit?

Don't get me wrong, I think what Forrest did was immoral, and took advantage of a vulnerable young woman.

But surely a paedophile is one interested in pre-pubescent children.

AIBU to be annoyed at this term for truly sick perverts being thrown around so casually?

If she was your daughter/son would you be so apologetic?

Do you really find the actions of his parents "chilling", *LessMissAbs"?

I think if, for example, my child was, say, convicted of common assault and there was a small degree of doubt as to who threw the first punch, I'd get a bit annoyed if the press continually referred to her a murderer.

not even the fact that he abducted her and damaged her education and future, Jayne3474? Well our boundaries of what's repulsive and sickening obviously lie in different places. Having sex with children is something I would certainly regard as sickening.

There is a well known case that occurred in a school not a million miles from where forest is from. The girl went on to marry and have two children with her former teacher. Now, nearly 30, she has woken up and has divorced him, regrets it and is now trying to establish some kind of future for herself with no qualifications.

Her ex teacher is now a partially disabled man in his fifties who lives on benefits.

Just because he's not a paedophile, it doesn't lessen the appallingness of his crime. It's just not the same thing as grooming a 10 year old say. Doesn't make it less vile, but he's still not a paedo.

If my DD at 14/15 was in this situation, I would have been very angry. But he still wouldn't be a paedophile in my opinion.

I think the sisters comments were a disgrace and embarrassing for all concerned

I don't think a line can be drawn can it ??

My daughter went through a drug induced (!) puberty at 17 - which side of that terrible line would she have fallen?

Tbh Arthur, I was actually put off my food with the glee you described the good time you had with a 14 year old at a festival when you were 22. Who even wants to hang around with 14 year olds?

So the answer to your question is yes. Yes I am sickened at a man who has been convicted of a crime which included sex with a child, child abduction and abuse of a position if trust.

And yes i am chilled by his family's response and dont find it surprising that they produced such an individual.

It says a lot about you if you find these views somehow unusual.

I feel very sorry for the girl. She's caught up in the belief they love each other and wants to wait for him.

Assuming she waits and they set up home together in the future after his release. How will she cope when the inevitable happens and he starts to target girls her current age?

I also feel sorry for his wife who has been painted by his family as some sort of needy, cold person who is somehow to blame.

Twitchycurtains well said

LessMissAbs It wasn't a festival, it was a gig, in a venue that required all entrants to be 18, in a university. We talked about how exams were going, for it was the end of year, and generally had a good chat, while we drank at the bar, where we also had a bit of a snog. Only when I invited her on to a party I was off to later did she confess that her dad was picking her up and that the exams she was talking about were mock GCSEs. I think your mind may have made more of it than that?

My point was that in the eyes of her, her father collecting her and the people on the door and behind the bar, she was mature enough to be ok. Clearly the people paid to ensure she was 18 thought she looked 18, as did I, and as did my friend, who was just as shocked as I was when I told him.

I remember what I was like at 15... I was definitely predatory and revelled in my sexual power over men. I look back now at how I behaved as rather cringeworthy and immature, but fairly normal.

I think that Forrest is weak and foolish and he should have had the wherewithal to say no. If it was truly love, she should have changed schools at 16 and/or he should have found a new job, left his wife and then begun a relationship with her at 16+ rather than an affair when she was underage and under his authority. Seems like lust got in the way of sensible decisions and he has been punished rather heavily for it.

What a sick individual this JF. I feel desperately sorry for the girl, she clearly was well manipulated by him. All other circs aside we have laws in this country and one of those is not to have sex with under 16s.

If people have a problem with it - change the law, otherwise shut up and send this man down for however long he deserves.

And you've dined out on it ever since Arthur? Id really rather not hear about it.

I managed to successfully avoid make children in clubs at the same age as you. Its just icky and off putting, not something to.be proud of. And I say that as someone whose DH is younger than me, and who dated someone 12 years you get than me, whom I still go on holiday with. The difference being they were both adults (actually over 25) when I met them. Id be utterly mortified if id sniffed a 14 year old at a festival (I have standards) and I certainly wouldnt be using the word 'snogged' either.

I dare say it would be relatively easy to go out and ensnare some gullible 14 year old, but its repulsive to me, I wouldn't want to.

Oh the joys of mobile phone internet!

How was ArthurSixpence supposed to know the girl was 14? At an over-18s event, looking over 18, acting mature and as soon as he found out how old she was, left well alone and was horrified.

The Jeremy Forrest situation is TOTALLY different to that!

I don't know where this idea that its "normal" for 15 year old girls to be sexually predatory/flirtatious has come from. I certainly never was and neither were the vast majority of the girls I was at school with. I'm only 32, so I can't see there has been a huge cultural shift since then.

I think it's fair enough his family is standing by him. But they should not be trivialising and condoning his behaviour. Which for a teacher in a position of responsibility was a disgrace.

'I don't know where this idea that its "normal" for 15 year old girls to be sexually predatory/flirtatious has come from'

I guess it's because there are always people who cannot rush quick enough to blame the victim.

I find a lot of the reactions to this case seriously creepy and disturbing. All the excuses about how much they 'love each other' and her father saying he will be happy to talk her down the aisle when JF comes out of prison The whole thing seems to play into some downright weird fairy tale fantasies for some people.

I had never thought of his family as 'enablers' before but actually that's a very good point - maybe he's the golden child within the family and everything he does it always marvellous in their eyes. Maybe he's a narcissist.

I can't imagine how sick and horrified his wife must be

"I don't know where this idea that its "normal" for 15 year old girls to be sexually predatory/flirtatious has come from."

It comes from males wanting to excuse themselves taking advantages of older children satisfying their own sexual urges... Nothing new unfortunately.

As soon as you strip away perceptions of romance what you are left with is an abuser/victim scenario.

The judge in his summing up saw through the fairytale and saw clearly the grooming of a vulnerable minor by an adult in a position of responsibility.

Forrest didnt simply behave immorally, he behaved illegally. For a teacher the age of consent is effectively 18 not 16.

The Stuart Hall sentencing is quite separate simply because he had to be dealt with using the rules and laws in place at the time he committed his offences.

Still not sure on Stuart Hall. If he'd been found guilty of a murder committed in the fifites, would they have hung him?

Well, I'm not saying for a moment that JF isn't a dirty old perv!

And as re. all these other girls..hmm. Well to be honest, who knows whether that's true or not? All I could see was a pretty girl posing on the front pages saying she'd also been targeted. Smacks of journos going after stories to me if I'm honest..

When my friend came out as being involved with teacher, the same thing happened - about 5 girls reackoned he'd tried it on with them! One of whom claimed it had happened in class. Well, i'd sat next to her all year! So if he had, pretty sure I'd have witnessed it!

However, back to the JF case, it is appalling whichever way you look at it.

But I do agree with the OP to a certain extent. Really not the same as some paedo who downloads child pornography and does nasty things to small children against their will.

But still appalling and immoral - yes.

And let's be honest, probably highly unlikely they'll stay together! My friend's husband didn't end up going to jail for it. Their whole 'relationship' is unfortunately doomed from the outset ('relationship' in inverted commas, as that's their term, not mine!!!!)

About Stuart Hall, TVTonight?

I genuinely don't understand why some crimes are punished by the law at the time they were committed and some are not, that's all.

Or why the law is applied so differently for different cases. Here is a story about a teacher who had a sexual relationship with a 15 year old female pupil, and who took her to France, but who only got 15 months in 2009 news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8266780.stm