The Runaway Schoolgirl

by Davina Williams

  By the time Gemma arrived home later that day, Mr Forrest’s words had been festering in my mind and I had wound myself up into a total fury. The moment she stepped through the front door, I tore her head off. ‘How dare you spread rumours of a romance between you and Mr Forrest! I’ve had him sobbing on the phone to me. Don’t you realise this could destroy his career and his family?’

  Faced with this barrage of accusations, Gemma burst into tears and started defending herself. ‘It’s all lies,’ she sobbed. ‘It’s everyone at school making things up, not me.’ I kept pushing her. ‘Why did he ring me then? There must be more to it than you say.’ But Gemma was adamant that she was the injured party. She was stuck in the middle of the rumours, and was really upset and angry with me that I didn’t believe her.

  But I was angrier than I’d ever been before. I have always tried my best with my children and I felt ashamed that I had obviously not done a good enough job as a mother.

  It was a horrific scene, and one that I regret to this day. I can’t help thinking if only I had reacted differently and calmly, talked things through with Gemma, she might have opened up to me about what was really happening. As we all know, though, 20:20 hindsight is always easy.

  After lots of tears and screamed accusations we both eventually calmed down. Gemma promised me that she would confront the people who were spreading gossip and tell them to stop telling lies. The summer holidays were coming up and she was determined to get everything back on an even keel so that it could all be forgotten by the time the new term began in September. I believed that she would do the right thing and so we agreed to say no more about it.

  For the remaining days at school everything went back to normal. Soon after, the summer holidays began, and we all looked forward to being home together as a family and getting to know baby Lilly. Money was a bit tight as we were saving to move, so we didn’t go abroad for a big holiday but spent a few days in Somerset with Paul’s family. We had a couple of day trips to the zoo and park, Gemma often went off to see her nan and all the kids had friends round for barbecues and things like that.

  Gemma and her friends Louise and Ben hung out a lot together, going to the beach, the local shopping centre and so on, just like any other fifteen-year-olds, but I always insisted that she regularly texted me to let me know where she was and when she would be back home. She would sometimes stay over at Louise’s – they were practically living in each other’s pockets at the time – and everything seemed to be back to normal after all the upset before the holidays.

  I was still on maternity leave and was at home most of the time, so I would have known if there was anything untoward going on, wouldn’t I?

  CHAPTER 4

  BACK TO SCHOOL

  All too quickly, the summer was over. I vividly remember the day Gemma went off to school in her new Year 11 uniform. It was different to the normal uniform, as kids in the year choose what colour polo top they wear; in 2012, they chose deep blue. I remember thinking how grown-up Gemma looked as she went off on her first day back. Even so, she was still my ‘little mermaid’. The first of my three daughters, she would always be my little girl.

  When Gemma was tiny, I used to dress her up in frilly dresses, but when she grew up she didn’t dress as a ‘girly’ teenager at all. She was never one of those teenagers who hitched up her school skirt into a mini or wore too much make-up. In fact, if anything, she would dress down with flat shoes, dark eyeliner and quite ‘indie’ clothes. She never tried to look or act older than she was.

  With exams looming, it was important that Gemma knuckled down. All the early indications were that she was getting to grips with the new term, and it seemed all of the rumours about her and Mr Forrest had been forgotten. Every day when she got home from school, I would ask how her day had been, and every day she would tell me, ‘Yes, everything’s fine.’

  Unfortunately, on Wednesday, 19 September, two days before Gemma was to go missing, I was to discover that everything had been far from fine.

  I was busy running around attending to Lilly and Alfie when there was a knock on the door. There on the doorstep were an official-looking man and a woman. They looked at me very seriously and showed me their ID cards. Instantly I felt physically sick and started shaking. ‘My name is Detective Constable Pawson,’ said the man, ‘and this is my colleague, who’s a social worker. We would like to speak to you about your daughter Gemma.’

  Of course I immediately thought the worst had happened and they were going to tell me that Gemma had been involved in an accident or something. I panicked and told them I wouldn’t let them in until they told me the reason they were there. Now I know it sounds weird, but I thought everything would be all right so long as I could keep them outside; I felt safe in my space. I wasn’t going to budge until they told me why they were there.

  ‘We need to talk to you about a relationship your daughter Gemma may have been having with her teacher, Mr Jeremy Forrest.’

  I have always been nervous about letting strangers into my house without really preparing myself; it is an insecurity of mine – I am very house proud and don’t like things to be out of place. At that point, though, I let them in, relieved that it was just about those stupid rumours, safe in the knowledge that I would be able to put the record straight. I told them that I had already spoken to Mr Forrest and it was all lies, just tittle-tattle put around by school kids, and that I had also spoken to Gemma about it. There was nothing to be concerned about.

  The next thing DC Pawson said hit me like a ton of bricks.

  ‘Gemma is believed to have indecent pictures of Mr Forrest on her phone and we need to speak to you both about it.’

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and so I phoned Gemma straight away, trying to keep calm. ‘Hi darling, where are you?’ I said breezily. ‘When will you be home?’ Gemma could obviously tell from my voice that something wasn’t right. ‘I’m at school, Mum, what’s the matter? You’re scaring me.’ I pulled myself together and tried to sound as normal as possible: ‘No, no, it’s nothing. How long do you think it will take you to get home?’

  As we waited for Gemma, I bumbled about trying to change Lilly’s nappy as DC Pawson carried on talking to me. To be honest, it was like white noise; I was too shocked to concentrate on what he was saying. Meanwhile, I could sense his colleague’s eyes burning into me, watching my every move. It turned out that Gemma had previously shown the photographs to another girl at school. She had then told her parents about what she had seen, and they in turn had contacted the police.

  Unbeknown to me, Lee was upstairs in his bedroom and had heard us talking. He rang Gemma and told her that two people were at the house asking questions about her. At this point, I was later to find out, Gemma worked out what was going on and proceeded to delete the incriminating photographs from her phone. She also went to see Mr Forrest to warn him that people were at her house, waiting to speak to her.

  When Gemma eventually arrived home, she looked quite frightened and wanted to know what was going on. DC Pawson was very nice to her and calmly explained that they needed to speak to her about some pictures that she may have on her phone.

  With that, Gemma shoved the phone at him. ‘See for yourself,’ she said. ‘There’s nothing on it. I don’t know what you are talking about.’

  But DC Pawson pressed Gemma a bit more. He explained to her that the police would be able to retrieve any photographs she may have deleted and that this was her opportunity to put the record straight.

  It soon became plain that Gemma wasn’t going to say anything more and shortly afterwards they left. DC Pawson said he would be back in touch on the Friday once he’d had a chance to investigate the phone.

  At the time I believed Gemma was telling the truth. When they had gone, I turned to her, saying: ‘Is there anything I should know? I do trust you, you know …’

  ‘Good,’ she replied. ‘You should.’

  With that we ended the conversation and carried on as if not
hing had happened.

  Not surprisingly, I found it hard to sleep that night. My mind was all over the place and Lilly was unsettled. Paul and I talked and eventually we both fell asleep on the sofa and at around 3am I woke up when I heard Gemma coming down the stairs, dressed in her school uniform. Half awake, half asleep, I asked her what she was doing. ‘It’s the middle of the night, sweetheart, go back to bed,’ I told her. And as if she was sleepwalking, back upstairs she went.

  In the early hours, just as the alarm clock went off, I felt Gemma snuggling up to me. It was like she was a little girl again when she had climbed into my bed when she was ill or needed to be comforted. ‘I just wanted a cuddle,’ she explained. It was sweet, and yet I also remember thinking how out of character it was, even though we had an affectionate relationship. Of course, it all makes sense now …

  Later that day, Gemma called me from Ben’s phone – hers had been confiscated – and asked if she could stay at Louise’s that night. I told her that I didn’t really like her staying over on a school night, but I thought it might be a good idea after what we had been through the night before. I felt she needed to be with her best friend, even if it was a school night – just this once.

  Gemma came over to pick up her stuff and made a big fuss over Lilly. She then hugged me really tightly, and held my face in her hands and told me she loved me. When I told her I loved her, too, she grabbed me, this time holding my face more forcefully. ‘No, Mum, you need to listen to me. I REALLY love you.’ ‘Yes, yes,’ I said, ‘I know you do. Now get out of here and try not to burn Louise’s house down!’

  I gave her some dinner money for tomorrow and off she went.

  The next day she was gone.

  CHAPTER 5

  ‘WE KNOW WHO SHE’S WITH …’

  On Friday, 21 September 2012, less than 24 hours since I had packed Gemma off to Louise’s for a sleepover, my whole world was turned upside down. And to think, I had started the day with nothing more to worry about than what kind of furniture we wanted to buy from Argos …

  Detective Constable Pawson and the school police officer came into the sitting room, where the family had gathered waiting for news. Our minds had been racing, trying to make sense of things and wondering what had happened to Gemma. No one wanted to admit their fears.

  When DC Pawson then said, ‘We know who she’s with’, I was chilled to the core.

  The school police officer recapped the information that they had. Following DC Pawson’s visit to us earlier in the week, he had been liaising with the school. The moment Gemma went missing, he requested that a number of cross-checks be made on Forrest.

  DC Pawson’s suspicions about Forrest had proved to be correct: he and Gemma were together.

  ‘We have CCTV footage of Jeremy Forrest and Gemma boarding a ferry at 9.20pm last night from Dover to Calais. We tracked his car number plate from Eastbourne to the ferry crossing.’

  I jumped up, screamed ‘Nooooo,’ and ran out of the room. Once again I found myself thinking, ‘If I’m not there, it’s not happening.’ It can’t be happening. I wanted to run, but I had nowhere to run to. My coping mechanism was to deny that my darling daughter could have been taken by this man. Things like this didn’t happen to people like us.

  Back in the sitting room with Paul, Max, Mum and Charlotte there was a whirlwind of questions. What was being done? When would they arrest him? When would Gemma be back? Did Gemma looked scared on the CCTV footage? Had he kidnapped her? Could he have molested her? Everyone wanted to speak; they wanted answers.

  For me, it was just a blur. I went to the other side of the room trying to escape what I had just heard. Surely it is a mistake, I kept telling myself. Surely she will be home in a minute.

  DC Pawson explained to us that Forrest had phoned in sick the day before. When the police report about Gemma going missing came through, he had called Forrest’s home and spoken to his wife, who said he was away on a course in London. DC Pawson put two and two together – the rumours, the pictures, the pair of them going missing from school – and then it was just a matter of tracking down Forrest’s car number plate.

  By then, though, Forrest and Gemma had got a 15-hour head start on the police and were already over the border in France. The police said they were in contact with P&O Ferries and that officers were going to Dover to collect the CCTV images.

  There was one glimmer of hope that we could all cling on to – Forrest had bought return tickets and they were due back in Dover on the 10pm ferry on Sunday night.

  I tried to persuade myself that Gemma might ring me; after all, she would know how upset I would be that she had disappeared. I told myself maybe, just maybe, it was totally innocent, but deep down I knew I was kidding myself.

  Paul was great and immediately took charge of the kids, making sure they were fed and tucked up in bed. Max was brilliant, too, doing everything he could. Everyone pulled together and tried to stay strong.

  I didn’t cry, and I didn’t hassle the police to do more than they were doing already. I didn’t feel any anger; in fact, I didn’t feel any emotion at all – I was just numb. It was all too much for me to take in.

  The sequence of events is a bit of a blur, but I do remember that at some stage a family liaison officer called Jim arrived. To start off with, he acted suspiciously with us, watching how we all interacted. I suppose he was trying to see if there was anything untoward going on. As we took calls from various family members and friends, he silently took it all in. It was a bit weird, but this was the least of my worries at the time.

  I can’t remember if I slept that night. From the moment I heard Gemma had gone missing, I stopped being myself. I felt like I was somehow on the outside, looking in, watching it all unfold. People were running around, fussing over me and the kids, trying to comfort me, encouraging me to eat and so on, but I was just blank. I started obsessing over stupid things. Would she have eaten? What clothes had she got with her? Does he know she is afraid of the dark?

  But as I was soon to discover, the nightmare was only just beginning …

  CHAPTER 6

  A WEEKEND OF WAITING

  On Saturday morning, Jim came back, and he was much more friendly this time than he had been the night before. In fact, over the course of the next few days we became like old friends. It is strange how quickly you bond with people in incredibly difficult circumstances.

  The police issued us with a password, in case the press or anyone else got hold of the story and tried to get more information out of us over the phone. Bizarrely, our password was Wonga – apparently, it was the first thing Jim and his ‘guvnor’ had seen in the newspaper that morning. Soon after, I got a call from Detective Chief Inspector Jason Tingley but I refused to talk to him until I heard the magic password. I knew he was probably who he said he was, but I needed to make sure …

  DCI Tingley, now armed with the right password, called us back and later came over with a colleague, Detective Inspector Andy Harbour. They arrived at about 8pm and I sat in the kitchen with Paul, Max and my eldest sister Annette as the officers recounted what they knew. They explained that the CCTV images that P&O Ferries had provided were now with the police and a European arrest warrant was being prepared. Trouble was, it would need to be put before a senior judge in order for it to be authorised, and that couldn’t happen until Monday morning at the earliest. That meant that if Gemma and Forrest didn’t return on the Sunday night, they wouldn’t be able to arrest him in France until Monday at the earliest.

  They also explained to me how MI5 and the Serious Organised Crime Unit were advising Sussex Police, and how Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organisation, would assist with the investigation, acting as a go-between for the police forces in the UK and Europe. To be honest, I don’t think I took it all in: all I wanted to know was how long it was going to take to bring my daughter back.

  Annette and Max then started going on and on about the lack of support that the school had given us. It was then tha
t I was broken out of my trance. I remember sitting there in utter disbelief at the conversation they were having.

  Suddenly, I snapped. ‘Will you two shut up! I don’t care what your thoughts or views are, this is not helping. The only person I want to hear speak is Chief Inspector Tingley!’ Having a debate about it wasn’t going to get Gemma back.

  At that point I didn’t care what the school did or didn’t do. I was just hanging on every word that Jason Tingley had to say. It wasn’t until the next day, when it actually dawned on me what I had done, that I apologised for my outburst. I was ashamed about how I had reacted.

  Jason explained that if Gemma and Forrest arrived back on the 10pm ferry, the police would be waiting there to arrest him on suspicion of abduction. They could do this as soon as they were back in the UK, but they couldn’t do anything in France without the European arrest warrant. Once they had arrested Forrest, Gemma would then be taken into protective custody. She wouldn’t be under arrest herself, as she had done nothing wrong.

  Until then, he said, we just had to be patient …

  The next call I got was from the Sussex Police media department. With all the text messages and tweets that our family and friends had been putting out, our local newspaper, the Eastbourne Herald, had got hold of the story. To make matters worse, some other children at school had obviously put two and two together, and there were some Facebook messages going round, saying that Gemma had run off with Forrest.

  The media department wanted to issue an official statement and take control of the situation. Max gave them a quote and, before we knew it, a story about Gemma appeared on the BBC News website …