Runaway British teen heads home from France as her teacher awaits extradition

A British teacher who ran away to France with a female student won’t fight his extradition to the UK, his lawyer says.

Sussex police

Thirty year-old Jeremy Forrest was arrested in Bordeaux on Friday on suspicion of abducting 15 year-old Megan Stammers, who disappeared from the UK more than a week ago.

The pair were discovered strolling down Bordeaux's main shopping street after a member of the public recognised Forrest from media coverage of the runaways.

Stammers is expected to return home to Sussex later on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Forrest is being held in a prison in the Gradignan prison in south-west France while he waits for a court hearing on Tuesday which will decide whether he will be extradited to Britain.

His lawyer, Daniel Lalanne, says he will not fight the proceedings.

Prosecutors emphasised that French police were not investigating the case but simply carrying out an international arrest warrant issued by British authorities.

The pair had not been seen since boarding a cross-Channel ferry together on September 20.

Security camera pictures were released of them holding hands and walking arm in arm aboard the ferry from Dover to the northern French port of Calais.

Their parents had appealed for them to get in touch but played down fears that the schoolgirl could be in any danger.

There was never any suggestion that Stammers was taken by Forrest against her volition.

Under French law, a 15-year-old is not considered a minor in sexual terms, unlike in Britain, where the age of consent is 16.

But Forrest could be deemed to have committed a crime in France if he was found to have abused the position of authority he had as Stammers' teacher.