Gemma wasn’t allowed to attend court because she was the victim of the crime, but I promised her that I would get in touch with her as soon as the session had come to an end and tell her all about it.
Before we went into court, Paul, my friend Chloe and I went for a coffee. I was shaking like a leaf. It was such a surreal experience that I would be coming face to face with my daughter’s abductor any minute now. It was incredibly frightening.
I then met up with the prosecution barrister, Richard Barton, and he was lovely with me. I know I say that about almost everyone connected to the case, but I really have been so very lucky with the teams of people who have worked on it. Richard took me to one side and reassured me that everything was going to be fine and said that if there was anything that I didn’t understand, he would be more than happy to explain any details. I knew we were very lucky to have him on our side, as there seemed to be nothing he didn’t know about the law. I had every faith in him that he would do his utmost for us.
There was so much going on. People seemed to be rushing from one office to another and pieces of paper were being handed round as the legal teams got everything in order before the session began.
It was then that Mark Ling dropped the bombshell that he had heard that Forrest was likely to be entering a plea of not guilty. My heart sank to the pit of my stomach. In pleading not guilty, there would have to be a trial and that would mean that Gemma would be forced to give evidence in court.
Completely thrown, I couldn’t take in what Mark was saying. There was going to be a trial – and what’s more, in all likelihood it would be smack-bang in the middle of Gemma’s final GCSE exams. I was told that the Crown Prosecution Service would be calling 14 witnesses at the trial, and I could only guess that these were likely to be police officers, teachers, other pupils, Forrest’s wife and, of course, Gemma and myself.
It was only when we got into the court and saw a video screen that we realised that once again Forrest wouldn’t be appearing in person. I was disappointed – I had fretted for days and got myself so psyched up that I was going to see him in the flesh. I wanted to have a chance to take in every detail of him – to see what he looked like up close and to try and understand how he had made Gemma fall for him.
The videolink was switched on and the next thing I saw was Forrest coming to take a seat in front of the camera. He seemed to be having a joke with the cameraman. I was so angry that he had the audacity to act like that – this was no laughing matter. He then slumped down in the chair, which made me dislike him even more. His attitude really got under my skin.
As in previous court appearances, the judge asked him to plead guilty or not guilty. The bile rose in my stomach as I heard him speak.
‘Not guilty.’
I still didn’t believe it. I wanted him to say it again and again, just so I could be sure of his words. After that, the next part of the hearing was all a bit of a blur as I was still trying to get my head around the idea of him pleading not guilty. At one point, I recall that Judge Mr Justice Singh asked Forrest’s team if they had prepared their defence statement, and they said that they still had nothing to offer. The judge seemed to be furious and set them a deadline of mid-March to submit the necessary information.
I was totally confused. What kind of game was his team of hotshot lawyers playing? But they just smugly looked on as if biding their time.
It was announced that Forrest would face a two-week trial at Lewes Crown Court from Monday, 10 June. The whole session was over in a matter of minutes.
Standing outside the court afterwards, we tried to take stock of what had just happened. I was trying to make sense of his not guilty plea. Why had he done it? I started to worry about what he would have to say when the trial began. Once again, I began to wonder if perhaps I had actually given permission for Gemma to go away with him. I was certain I hadn’t, but I couldn’t understand for the life of me why he hadn’t pleaded guilty.
I was terrified about the impending trial. It wouldn’t just be Gemma in the firing line – I knew that anyone that the Crown Prosecution Service wanted to act as a witness would have to be there, too. That meant me, Forrest’s wife, Gemma’s schoolfriends and a whole string of other innocent victims.
As we were standing there, I caught the eye of Forrest’s solicitor and I felt really intimidated. He gave me a kind of look that seemed to say: ‘We’re going to win this …’
CHAPTER 24
GEMMA’S PLEA
I had promised that I would report back to Gemma as soon as I had any news, but I knew that this kind of information couldn’t be relayed to her over the phone, so I waited to get home before I told her what had happened.
She burst into tears the moment she heard the word ‘trial’. Upset, angry and confused, she was adamant that she wouldn’t go to court: ‘You can tell them now, I won’t be doing anything.’
‘But, sweetheart,’ I said, ‘you have to …’ She ran upstairs to my room and slammed the door.
I knew that she needed space and time to get her head around what was happening so I left her alone. I didn’t know what I was meant to do. I rang the police and asked for advice about how I should handle the situation, and they said that I should try not to panic because the trial was still a long way off. For all we knew, Forrest could yet change his plea and the trial might not happen anyway.
After an hour or so, I checked in with Gemma to see if she wanted anything to eat or drink. She was still in a real state and begged me to change what I’d said to the police. If I said I had actually given Forrest permission to take her away, she said, then he wouldn’t have a case to answer to.
But that wasn’t true. I would never have given Forrest permission to take Gemma out of the country.
She continued to plead with me to change my statement. I have to admit that I did consider it briefly, as I just couldn’t face the heartache that the trial would bring. But it would have been a lie and I could have ended up in prison myself. Besides, I wanted justice. We just had to accept the inevitable: there would be a trial and the nightmare would continue.
Lee was concerned that he would be called as a witness, as he had seen Gemma from a distance walking to Louise’s house with another friend on the night she had said goodbye to me. None of us knew yet who the Crown Prosecution Service would want to appear at the trial, and I tried to explain the situation as best I could to Lee and Maddie. I was determined to be as open with them as I could, and assured them that I would try to get answers for anything that was worrying them.
My poor mum was devastated when I told her that the case was going to go to trial. At sixty-seven, she was battling with various conditions, including arthritis, sciatica and an irregular heartbeat, and during this time her health really went downhill. Prior to Gemma going missing, the two of them had always had the most wonderful relationship, but it had all fallen apart.
Up until this point, I had spared Mum a lot of the details of the case as I knew she wouldn’t have been able to handle it; it wouldn’t have been fair to burden her with it. When she would ring up, I would tell her that things were fine to stop her from worrying. Now, though, there was going to be a trial and there was no way we would be able to avoid her finding out what had happened.
We talked about how she used to spoil Gemma with her favourite meals and how unhappy she was that they didn’t talk anymore. At one point, she remembered Gemma once telling her that her boyfriend had written a song about her that included the lyrics ‘You hit me like heroin’. She remembered remarking, ‘That’s a bit strong for someone of your age, isn’t it?’ and the conversation had quickly tailed off after that. Gemma didn’t mention him again and Mum had forgotten the conversation had ever taken place. They didn’t really have heart to hearts any more after that.
It was such a shame – they used to have such a tight-knit relationship before this. Mum lived with my sister Charlotte and her husband and daughter, and Gemma would often go and stay with them. They had e
ven talked about going on holiday to Disneyland Paris together. Funnily enough, this became significant when the police investigation got underway. Mum and Charlotte’s laptops were seized after Gemma went missing as the police knew she would have used them when she stayed over with them and, lo and behold, they found internet searches for Paris on the browser history. We had to explain that they were just planning an innocent family trip to Disneyland Paris, not a secret runaway.
CHAPTER 25
MORE DETAILS REVEALED
Bit by bit, the police were piecing together what had happened when Gemma went missing, and we began to get a sense of just how chillingly calculating Forrest had been when he abducted her.
On the day that Gemma had told Louise that she wasn’t feeling well and that she was going to go back home, she had instead gone to a shopping centre car park, where Forrest was waiting for her.
Gemma had left her wash bag at Louise’s. Apparently, when they went back to pick it up, Forrest was in tears and cried to Louise, ‘I’m sorry I’m doing this, but I have to.’ It was if he was trying to manipulate Louise into thinking he was making some sort of grand gesture by running away with Gemma and wanted the poor girl to feel sorry for him. I expect he thought the fact that a teacher was trusting her with private information would make her more likely to keep the secret. He was a grown-up, after all, and Louise would have liked the fact he was confiding in her.
The first Gemma knew that they were going to France was when they were in the car on the way to Dover to catch the ferry. It was at this point that she first began to realise the magnitude of what she was doing. She had wanted to run away from home because she knew that she was going to be in trouble for lying about what had been going on with Forrest, but she had never factored in a trip abroad; she had just assumed they would go to Scotland or somewhere up north. She didn’t speak to Forrest for the rest of the journey. She was scared, but felt it was too late to go back.
Before the ferry crossing, Forrest got Gemma to send a text to her friend Ben, telling him that they were heading north. Again, I think he thought Ben would be thrilled to be included in their circle of trust, but he also wanted to make sure that he had left a false trail in case Ben later said anything to the police. He had it all sussed out.
He later chucked his phone in the sea and, knowing the police would likely be on their tail, dumped his car soon after driving to Paris – he knew they were in danger of being tracked through the toll roads. From Paris, they then caught a train to Bordeaux.
It was so disturbing to discover how much Forrest had planned before the trip. He even told Gemma that he had researched what his prison sentence could be for taking her. It made me feel sick. In France, the legal age of consent is fifteen – provided, that is, the adult isn’t in a position of responsibility, which of course he was.
Forrest wanted to blend in as Gemma’s boyfriend rather than her teacher, to lay low in France until her sixteenth birthday and then resume their relationship back in the UK afterwards. Just because he was in France, though, didn’t mean he was invisible.
It transpired that he had created a fake CV using the name Jack Dean and had applied for a job working in a bar in Bordeaux. The manageress of the bar was British and had read about Gemma’s case online. She realised who Forrest was and, liaising with police, invited him back for a second interview.
He and Gemma were intercepted by plain-clothed policemen while on their way back to the bar. It was there that Gemma thought she was being kidnapped and so she started screaming and trying to claw free to get away. It wasn’t until Detective Inspector Andy Harbour called out to Gemma and started speaking to her in English that she started to calm down.
Alison, the woman who blew the whistle on them in Bordeaux, was interviewed after their discovery. ‘They seemed really nice and she seemed normal, no sign of distress, but I don’t feel their plan was thought through well enough,’ she said. ‘We might live in France, but we do follow what happens in our own country. As soon as I logged on to the internet, I recognised their photos.’
CHAPTER 26
NEW HOUSE, NEW START
On Tuesday, 5 February 2013, two letters arrived in the post confirming that Gemma and I would have to attend court for the trial hearing. I decided to hide them – I just couldn’t face telling Gemma about them. Already she was in such a state thinking about the trial.
I told Sarah and we agreed that it would be best if I waited until nearer the time to tell her, when we would know for certain if the trial was going to be taking place. We agreed that Gemma didn’t need the additional worry and uncertainty.
A week later, another alarming letter arrived. This time it was from Kennedy High School, asking if Gemma would like to take up the offer of their post-sixteen courses after Year 11. I couldn’t believe they had the nerve to send me something like this. I thought about sarcastically replying with some suggestions about the kind of courses the school could actually take itself – child safety, for example – but I resisted the temptation and just filed it for the time being.
In the meantime, with so many things happening that were beyond our control, we were getting much closer to finding the kind of house that we needed. I ordered a skip and looked forward to its arrival, knowing I could put all my energies into something positive for a change. It was ironic as I’d been in the process of ordering one on the day that Gemma disappeared, but back then it was an entirely different situation.
It was good to have a big clearout, as I could get rid of all the bad memories and get ready for a fresh start. But just our luck, yet again things didn’t go exactly to plan …
On the day that the skip was delivered, Paul suddenly called out from upstairs, ‘Is Milly in the kitchen with you?’ Milly was our Yorkshire Terrier and I’d had her for 12 years, since she was an eight-week-old puppy. She was given to me by my stepdad on the last day I ever saw him, so she was very special to me. Anyway, on the day the skip arrived, the back gate was left open and Milly escaped. She was a tiny little thing and had squeezed through impossibly small spaces before, but she had always previously come back home.
This time, however, she never did. We searched high and low for her – as did the neighbours who knew and loved her, too – but it was no use, she was gone. With yet another trauma to cope with, I was heartbroken. I didn’t feel I could go round the neighbours asking if they’d seen her when only recently I’d been asking if they’d seen my daughter. In the end my next-door neighbour Katrina went round for us, but it was all to no avail: Milly was gone.
Finally, on Saturday, 9 March we moved into our new home. It ended up happening quite quickly. We knew as soon as we saw the house that it was the perfect place for us. What’s more, it was brand new, so there were no unhappy memories that could be attached to it.
Before we signed on the dotted line, I took the children round to see the house and showed Gemma the room that would be hers. I promised her a new bed, new bedroom furniture, new bedding – the whole lot. I wanted her to feel she had her own space again after so many months of sleeping on the sofa. She absolutely loved it. It was so lovely to see her happy again. ‘Finally,’ I thought, ‘we can get things back on track.’
Come the day we moved, we decided that we wouldn’t make a big deal about leaving. We agreed that we wouldn’t tell the neighbours where we were going as we were concerned someone might inadvertently mention it to the press later. I was sad that I couldn’t say goodbye properly to everyone. If I could have picked up all of the neighbours and relocated them to our new street, I would have done – they were such great people.
Excited as I was about moving to a new house, I felt sad, too. I had lived in our old house for 10 years and, apart from the traumatic last nine months or so, I had lots of happy memories of my time there. It was where Lee, Gemma and Maddie had grown up, and it was Alfie and Lilly’s first home, so it wasn’t all bad there.
The first night in the new house was fabulous. I actually slept that nig
ht, rather than just laying there hoping that at some point my body would shut down. Being able to wake up in the morning and knowing that no one knew we were ‘that family’ was an amazing feeling. Just being able to say good morning to our new neighbours like any other ordinary people was a real joy. I didn’t feel the urge to have to introduce myself or explain that all the stuff about me online wasn’t true.
It was great to be anonymous and normal again.
CHAPTER 27
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
The following month, April, I went back to work. The company I was working for had been incredibly supportive and allowed me to extend my maternity leave because of the Gemma situation, but I knew that I had to try and start earning money again.
Beforehand, Gavin, my line manager, did everything he could to prepare me for coming back to work and even organised some occupational therapy for me – to assess how my job might need to be adapted because of the change in my circumstances. Previously, I had regularly been required to work extended hours and sometimes had to stay away from home overnight. Clearly, given everything that was going on, I could no longer do this. It was agreed that I would initially work three days a week and we would then review the situation going forward.
My first day back coincided with a big department meeting up in Manchester and I decided that I was going to brave it head-on and attend. Paul was working for the same company at the time and was also going to the meeting, so we arranged for Maddie and Alfie to stay with Max, my ex-husband. Lee, meanwhile, was staying over at his girlfriend’s and Paul’s mum came over to stay to look after Gemma and Lilly.
The Runaway Schoolgirl Page 11