Schoolgirl Megan Stammers returns to UK

SCHOOLGIRL Megan Stammers boarded a flight back to Britain yesterday as lawyers representing the teacher she disappeared with said he would not fight extradition proceedings against him.

• Megan Stammers had been missing for a week

• Jeremy Forrest is in police custody in France

• Parents of missing schoolgirl have expressed joy that she’s home

The 15-year-old took off from Bordeaux airport after she and Jeremy Forrest were spotted in the French city following a cross-border appeal.

The 30-year-old teacher, originally from Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, has agreed to return to the UK “as soon as possible”, his lawyers said last night.

Forrest was arrested on suspicion of child abduction after the pair were found in the French town on Thursday.

It is understood it will be a number of days before he is returned to the UK as he waits to appear in court in France. The pair were missing for one week.

Phil Smith, from Tuckers Solicitors, said in a statement: “He [Forrest] has agreed to return to the UK as soon as possible without the need for protracted extradition proceedings.”

Megan’s parents have been in contact with their daughter by telephone but have remained in the UK as they await her return.

Officers plan to speak with Megan once she has met with her mother Danielle Wilson and stepfather Martin Stammers.

An officer from Sussex Police’s child protection team travelled to Bordeaux to meet Megan after she was found, while a detective inspector from the force was already in France as part of the search for the teenager, the spokesman said.

Megan was reported

missing by her family after she failed to turn up at Bishop Bell Church of England School in Eastbourne on 21 September.

It later emerged that she and Forrest had caught a ferry from Dover to Calais the day before.

The pair were spotted in Bordeaux by a member of the public who recognised Forrest from television