Missing Megan's school at centre of 2009 grooming case

The school that employs Jeremy Forrest, who has fled to France with a 15-year-old student, was at the centre of a scandal in 2009 after a teacher was found guilty of grooming two teenage students, ITV News has learned.

Robert Healy, then 27, was jailed for seven years after he admitted grooming and sleeping with two female pupils aged 15 and 16 from Bishop Bell school.

Healy groomed both girls on social networking site Bebo and the court heard that the relationships were known around the school before he was caught.

Sussex Police said concerns about the relationship between Megan Stammers and Mr Forrest were referred to them last week but they would not reveal if they approached the 30-year-old teacher before he went to France on Thursday.

Earlier, a spokesman from East Sussex County Council told the Daily Mail that the school had been aware of concerns about Jeremy Forrest's relationship with Megan Stammers but refused to confirm when these were first raised.

The newspaper also reported that friends of the missing 15-year-old had warned staff about her relationship with Mr Forrest after the pair were spotted holding hands seven months before they fled to France.

The schoolgirl and her maths teacher were reportedly seen holding hands on a flight home from a school trip to Los Angeles in February.

Friends of Megan reported their concerns to another teacher after returning from the five-day trip.

A friend of Megan Stammers told the Daily Mirror she was "really angry the school did not do enough to protect" the missing 15-year-old girl.

In the months before Mr Forrest fled to France, he tweeted the following messages:

Yesterday Megan's mother pleaded for her daughter to return home, saying: "Sweetheart I don't care what you've done or why, I just want you home".

Danielle Wilson made a tearful appeal alongside Megan's stepfather at a police press conference.

Ms Wilson also said that her daughter's disappearance was "completely out of character, this is not her, she is not like this".

Megan's stepfather, Martin Stammers, told how Megan sent him a text message last Tuesday asking to meet him.

He arranged to meet her on Saturday but she did not keep the date as her and Mr Forrest are believed to have already left for France.

Sussex Police said they needed to know that Megan was safe.

The schoolgirl is believed to be in France with her teacher, 30-year-old Jeremy Forrest.

The pair travelled out on a ferry together on Thursday evening and were due to return to the UK on Sunday but did not use their tickets.

There have been no sightings of the pair since they vanished.

A Facebook page has been set up to appeal for information about Megan's whereabouts.

Mr Forrest posted videos online of him performing music under the name Jeremy Ayre.

He also posted a blog entitled 'You hit me just like heroin' on May 19, where he wrote about a "moral dilemma" he faced.

Our Social Affairs Editor Penny Marshall reports on the family's appeal, and the hunt for Megan.

Anyone with information is asked to call Sussex Police on 101.