Gemma took one look at her bedroom and said: ‘I’m not sleeping there!’
She was adamant. For a start all her things seemed to be in different places since the police had searched it, but more than anything it just had too many memories for her. In fact, she never slept in that room again.
Tucked up on the sofa in her pyjamas, my little girl looked so scared and vulnerable. I was so relieved to have her home again, but I was still worried that she might try and run away to be near Forrest. ‘Please don’t run away again,’ I pleaded with her. She looked at me sadly before saying, ‘I’ve got no reason and nowhere to run away to …’
On the Wednesday, Gemma was due to be interviewed by officers at a police house in Hailsham. Before we set off, I asked how she had slept, and she told me she’d had nightmares all night. Later I found out what they were about and I’m not surprised in the slightest that she was disturbed.
When Forrest was arrested, Gemma was seized by plain-clothes policemen, dressed in black. Not knowing who they were, she panicked, thinking she was being kidnapped. Kicking and screaming to try and get away, the policemen had been quite forceful with her. The whole experience had been extremely traumatic for her, particularly on top of everything that she had already gone through. Little wonder she was haunted by what had happened.
The police house was a really odd place. Downstairs it was like any other normal house, but upstairs there was a medical room and a soundproof room with cameras and recording devices. It is used in cases where it is deemed that it would not be suitable to use a regular interrogation room – when, for example, the police are interviewing a minor or a vulnerable victim. Gemma ticked both of those boxes.
While Gemma was being interviewed upstairs I stayed downstairs. I thought it would take an hour or so, but the session ended up lasting seven hours. She was allowed comfort breaks, of course, but the poor thing had to endure hours and hours of questioning. All I wanted to do was put my arms around her and take her out of the situation, but I couldn’t. ‘I’m sorry, sweetheart, I know this is awful for you,’ I told her, ‘but there are questions that need to be asked.’
The police wanted to know every single detail about how she had met Forrest, and how their relationship developed. Trouble was, what she revealed in those initial interviews was completely different from what she was later to say in court.
At the time, she wasn’t focussing on anyone’s negative opinions about her relationship with Forrest. Swept up in the romance of it all, she couldn’t understand why it was such a big issue. She was very frank and honest about what had happened. As far as she was concerned, it was a love story, pure and simple. She felt mature enough to make her own decisions in life and was frustrated that people couldn’t understand that.
For my part, I was torn. I knew she loved Forrest, but I wanted her to understand that he had crossed the line. Whatever she thought of him, he had a duty of care as her teacher. He knew that he was breaking the law.
It was to take a while for her to realise that Forrest was not all he seemed. At the time, she was too much in love with him and totally wrapped up in the romance of it all. In her eyes, she didn’t see that there was any problem and had no idea about the true depth of his manipulation.
The police also discovered that Forrest had allegedly been seeing other women while he was having the relationship with Gemma. Amazingly, I believe his wife Emily never suspected a thing.
I heard rumours about a girl who worked in a pub in Bristol and another woman in London he was allegedly having an affair with. As far as Emily was concerned, he was just heavily involved in school activities and various further education courses. She had no idea that anything untoward was going on.
Forrest had told Gemma that he and Emily had stopped having a physical relationship. Again, though, he wasn’t telling the truth. Yes, there had been arguments between them, but they were working on their marriage to fix it.
I so wanted to believe Gemma for her own sake, but meanwhile, the evidence was stacking up against Forrest.