THE judge in the child abduction trial of Petts Wood teacher Jeremy Forrest is summing up the case for the jury this morning (June 20).
Forrest, of Chislehurst Road, is accused of abducting a 15-year-old pupil last September.
During a two-week trial jurors at Lewes Crown Court have heard how Forrest, who is married, fled to France with the teenager the day after police questioned her about their sexual relationship.
Summing up the case for the prosecution yesterday Richard Barton told the jury: “You do not have to decide whether he was a paedophile; you may consider, in the context of what he did, that is not an inappropriate label for him.
“It is about his desires to have that young sexual flesh, to satisfy his own carnal lusts."
And Ronald Jaffa, summing up the defence case, said: “She was very desperate, she had suicidal thoughts and she was assertive.
"If he had not taken her [to France], the alternative consequences were likely to be much worse.”
Judge Michael Lawson is set to send the jury out after he finishes summing up the case.
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