I'm Confused!

[Kathyan]

Can anyone tell me why, when this couple ran away to France the girl's name was all over the media, but now she 'cannot be named for legal reasons?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2351735/Jeremy-paedophile-I-groomed-Schoolgirl-lover-jailed-teacher-Jeremy-Forrest-says-wants-baby.html

[sandyRoe]

Initially the police were trying to find her, so name and picture were published.

[VHG]

Now she is part of a court case the judge can say if one or more of the defendants cannot be named for legal reasons.

It may be, or example, the person many be involved in another court case, to be tried later, and if their name got out in THIS case it may affect the outcome of the other case.

[Kathyan]

Isn't it a bit silly though as she has already been named?

[Gromit]

When she was a missing person, it was imperative to find her as soon as possible, and revealing her name was helpful in finding her.

When she was found, she became the victim of a criminal act and as she was a minor, her name was witheld to protect a 'child'.

It does seem a bit absurd in this case, but that is the law.

[Gromit]

As she is talking to the media and seemingly doing interviews, it is obvious that she does not want the anonymity. I suspect though, that she is deemed not old enough to make that decision.

[mikey4444]

I'm not sure what her name is right now but I wouldn't mind betting that she will be Mrs Forrest at some time in near to medium future !

[grumpy01]

Personally I think she should be locked up as well.She is certainly not a child ( although legally classed as such) and is probably as much to blame as Mr. Forrest.

[mikey4444]

Locked up for what exactly ? For falling in love with an older man ?

[Old_Geezer]

I guess it is easier to make laws as simple as possible and adhere to them than to try to cover all eventualities to create a sensible outcome. That said if a judge has a little personal discretion in these matters, that it might work ok.

[grumpy01]

I know that younger women falling in love with older men happens all the time and provided no one gets hurt there is nothing wrong with that.She is 15 and therefore as I suggested not a child,at least not in the physical sense and must have been aware of the probable fall out from all this.If as does appear to be the case she wants to marry him then good luck to them but the fact she seems to have got away "scot free" from an episode in which she was definitely compliant seems very unjust to me.

[ummmm]

I have a feeling the novelty will wear off. I wonder will she still be interested after the media have lost interest.

Grumpy - laws are in place to protect our young. What if she'd been 15 and very immature and naive?

[RATTER15]

Grumpy, so what crime has she committed?

[mikey4444]

Grumpy...I agree with you in part, as it takes two to tango. I don't remember that she needed to be dragged, kicking and screaming onto the cross channel ferry. There is more than a touch of Romeo and Juliet in this story. But she was under the age that British law allows to run off with an older man, and the court had no choice in jailing Forrest.

It would appear that she is now estranged from her family, which must count as some punishment at least. What I am still not quite sure about is, what crime she has committed, in order to be "locked up " ?

[grumpy01]

Perhaps locked up is the wrong term but it does seem to me that this has all been tilted rather to much in one direction.

[ummmm]

Well you cannot escape the fact that he was her teacher and was in a position of trust. He abused that position.

What would school life be like if all teacher succumbed to the seductions of teenagers?

[andy-hughes]

mikey - There is more than a touch of Romeo and Juliet in this story - er, no there isn't at all.

That imbues this sorry scenario with a sense of romance which it patently does not possess. This is not a case of two young lovers kept apart by family differences, this is a teacher seducing a pupil and taking her abroad with no forward plan whatsoever, or thought of the families involved. It was impulsive, immature, wreckless behaviour by a man supposdely mature enough to have the restponsibility to know better.

It bears about as much comparison to Romeo And Juliet as it does to an episode of Neighbours - except that this is real life, and things don't knit up nicely in twenty-eight minutes with appropriate ad breaks.

[FredPuli43]

We don't know how old Romeo was. He wasn't her teacher,though, and not subject to our law. She was 13, as far as we can judge. Don't know what the agent of consent was in their state at the time, but political marriages were arranged between children and this union, defiant of politics, might have followed the pattern. Shakespeare doesn't appear to have thought the ages significant for his audience.

[andy-hughes]

Fred - my point is that this relationship has only one thing in common with R & J - and that is that it was doomed from the start.

There are no other links at all.

R & J's love is doomed because of their mutual lineage, not because Romeo is a teacher in a position of trust and he is going to take Juliet away on some fantasy trip where they live hapily ever after and no-one even notices the've gone!

In fact, comparisons to R & J are facile and spurious - there is no 'doomed romance here', just a foolish immature man and a girl with a crush.

[pixie373]

Romeo and Juliet were supposed to have been 12 and 13. Would have been a different story, if Romeo had been 30

[katerich48]

Another schoolgirl has come forward saying he tried it on with her but she thought he was creepy and wasn't intersted