Jeremy Forrest

If Love is so strong then they will wait for one another

 

Erm, what about the wife and kids? I actually didn't know he was married, kind of changes things a bit!!

Val

 

Crazy

 

He obviously forgot about them... The mind boggles!

 

I was listening on the Three Counties radio programme last Friday morning about this case and it was amazing how many people were sticking up for him and saying that Forrest should not have been given such a long sentence as MS {Don't know why her name is being kept secret as it is all over the internet and there is even a Facebook page about her when she went missing}went willingly with him and all the CCTV footage i have seen shows them to be walking together arm in arm{no force used} so how can it be said that he abducted her as surely MS would have put up a fight if he had tried to drag her all the way to France.

I knew he had a wife but can find nothing about children as i read somewhere on the net that he was 30 years old and hadn't been married that long.

Evidently Stuart Hall got only 15 months because that was how long he would have served in prison if he had been found out 40 odd years ago.If his offences had happened in this day and age he would have got longer.

Forrest will no doubt have to spend time in solitary confinement because other prisoners will possibly attack him because of the label that he has been given.I just wonder how much all of this has cost the tax payer and it will be interesting to see if they do end up together when he gets out.

No doubt his wife will divorce him as it must be embarrasing for her,but then again she might decide to stand by her man.Only time will tell...

 

The abduction aspect comes from the fact she's only 15 and in the eyes of the law, a minor and not able to make decisions of her own. A lot of 15 year olds seem quite worldly-wise though, and feel they want to not be 15 any more and be treated as an adult. I feel sorry for his wife and children, but if there were problems at home, then who knows...

 

The British legal system is a bit bizarre in general. I've always found it odd that, for example, you go to the pub after finishing a DIY job and for whatever reason are found to have that Stanley knife in your pocket that you forgot to take out of said pocket at home before coming out. Potentially you can go to jail for carrying an offensive weapon. But then as it happened nobody noticed so you're ok, so then you drive home full of beer and run someone over, and get a fine and a 3 year ban but likely no custodial.

Or, lets say your an Aussie and you make a silly decision to swim in the stretch of river that a posh boat race is going to happen in, so despite having a British wife and a child in the UK, you get told you have to get out of the UK. But on the other hand lets say you get convicted of terrorism offences in another country so you leg it to the UK, where you then proceed to try to convince others to do the people of his host nation harm, that's ok and he can stay.

Don't get me wrong, I feel privileged that in the UK we have one of the better legal systems. I don't think people randomly vanish just for thinking the wrong thing here, but at the same time we can do a lot better. There is very little consistency it seems.

 

I fully agree with that

 

If I remember correctly ... because it was a long time ago ... in the 60s this would not have been the issue it is today. Okay, the man was/is married and that is a big issue of adultery ... but the girl was consensual so it is not a one-sided affair. I was very mature for my age at 16 and everyone thought I was much older, strangely as I was never allowed to date till I was 16 and was quite 'ignorant' of the facts of life in the UK but was shuffled back off to America to college at age 15 (with 8 O'Levels) and into college. I was actually working as a PA for a CEO in America at age 16 (English PAs were the 'in thing') and did so for many years so I have a lot of 'inside knowledge' and then worked in criminal law there for nearly 10 years.

I agree that the two cases are way out of line ... I have sympathy for Jeremy.

 

Since we are in the subject of underage relations: Berlusconi has just being sentenced to 7 years in prison.

 

Let's see him wriggle his way out of that one!

 

Italy reminds me of a fictional country described in one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of books, where the PM holds the official title of Tyrant, and they lock him up as soon as he's elected because everyone knows you can only get to that level of power through crime and immoral activities, and therefore just winning an election is proof enough that you need to be locked up. I can't remember which book that's in though.

 

So, looking around the net, it seems that if they'd stayed in France there would have been no case to answer.

Age of consent 15, no teacher/pupil rule, French authorities would not consider it a kidnapping as it obviously wasn't.

So were they tricked into returning to the UK to avoid extradition? Does that apply within the EU?

Can he apply for a re trial under French law where they take into account "Crime Passionel" ??? A crime of Passion?