A SCHOOLGIRL allegedly abducted to France by her married maths teacher was worried he could be imprisoned for "sexual contact" with her, a friend has told a court.

The girl was 15 when she started a sexual relationship with 30-year-old Jeremy Forrest, of Chislehurst Road, Petts Wood, after developing a crush on him at her school.

Fearing they were about to be exposed, Forrest booked them on a cross-Channel ferry from Dover to Calais on September 20 last year before spending seven days on the run in France.

Scots-born Forrest, who taught at Bishop Bell C of E School in Eastbourne, East Sussex, denies child abduction.

A friend of the girl, whose video-recorded police interview was shown to Lewes Crown Court today (June 18), said lots of rumours went around the school about the teenager's relationship with Forrest.

She said the girl only confirmed her relationship with the teacher to her on the day they fled to France.

She said the girl was worried about what could happen to Forrest if they were caught.

The 16-year-old said: "(The girl) was talking about what could happen to Mr Forrest, how long he could go to prison for.

"She was speaking about all the things he could go to prison for - she said sexual contact and she gave like a nod."

The witness said she and another friend were with the girl as Forrest picked her up to take her to France.

She said the girl was calm and added: "She wasn't under any pressure."

The mother of the schoolgirl told the court she thought her daughter was dead after she eloped with Forrest.

She said police came to their house to confront her daughter over rumours that there were indecent images of Forrest on her phone.

The mother said she did not know the whereabouts of her daughter for the seven days before she was caught.

The mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said that she was first warned by the school about rumours about her daughter and Forrest about two weeks after the trip to Los Angeles in February 2012.

She said she was told that "there were rumours amongst the pupils that she had got close to him but there was nothing found".

The mother said she confronted her daughter when she returned home.

The girl's mother said she did not hear anything else regarding Forrest until September 19 when a police officer and a social worker arrived at her house in Eastbourne.

She said that, during the summer, she had only allowed her daughter to stay nights at a friend's house and she had always believed she was there because she or her partner had dropped her off and picked her up.