‘We don’t care what you’ve done or why, just come home’

The mother and stepfather of teenager Megan Stammers, who is believed to have run off with her teacher, have made an emotional appeal for her to come home.

Speaking at a press conference, the 15-year-old’s mother, Danielle Wilson, said: “Sweetheart, I don’t care what you’ve done or why, I just want you home.”

Megan is believed to be in France with Jeremy Forrest, 30. The pair caught a ferry together last Thursday evening. They had tickets to return on Sunday but did not use them.

Mr Forrest is a maths teacher at Megan’s school, Bishop Bell Church of England School in Eastbourne. The alarm was raised at noon on Friday after Megan failed to attend.

In a direct message to the teenager, Chief Inspector Jason Tingley, of Sussex Police, said: “We believe that you left on your own accord with Jeremy, but we need to hear that you are OK. Your family and friends are extremely worried, but you are not in any trouble.

“My message to Mr Forrest is that this may not have gone as you expected it to. Right now, our priority is to know that Megan is safe, and I would ask you to do the right thing and make contact with us. We will work with you to get you both safely back into the country.”

Ms Wilson and Megan’s stepfather, Martin Stammers, both said the disappearance was out of character for the teenager.

“She is always in at 7pm, she is not one of these kids to roam the streets, she doesn’t go out drinking or anything like that,” Ms Wilson said. “She doesn’t like the dark, so she had never been out after dark.”

Mr Stammers also had a message for Megan

He said: “We had a date on Saturday – we didn’t make it. Babes, that offer’s still there, sweetheart. Just want you to come home safe and well, babes, please.”

A message was sent to a friend of Megan saying she had arrived in France. It is believed to have been the last contact since she caught the ferry last week.

However, the message did not come from Megan’s own phone.

Mr Tingley said: “I can’t give a specific time or date, but we know there was a message passed to one of her good friends to say she had arrived safely in France.

“I can’t say that message was from her, but we believe it was. That gives us some comfort that she has arrived safely and she is in France. That’s our last contact.”

Interpol, the UK Border Agency, the British Embassy and the French authorities are all working to trace Megan.

Last Thursday, Megan asked her mother whether she could stay overnight at a friend’s house. Her mother gave her dinner money for school the
following day, then Megan left.

But the following morning, she received a text message from the school, saying Megan had failed to show up for class. Checks were made to see whether the friend with whom she claimed to have been sleeping over was at school, and when it was confirmed that she was, alarm bells rang.

Her family revealed Megan had been receiving extra-curricular maths lessons since before the summer. But they did not suspect any relationship between her and Mr Forrest, a married amateur musician.

Ms Wilson said: “There were a couple of subjects she was struggling with and she was going to after-school extra tuition. One of them was maths, but that didn’t alert me because I knew it wasn’t one of her favourite subjects.”

Appeals for help in tracing Megan have continued to be posted on Twitter and Facebook, including by her sister, Brooke.

She tweeted: “Keeping hope that we’ll have good news soon. Need our meg home safe and sound #keepfaith #findmeganstammers.”