The mother of a teenage girl abducted by paedophile school teacher Jeremy Forrest has described how she feared her daughter may be dead after she vanished from the family home.

Davina Williams, whose name has been changed to protect the identity of her daughter, said she blamed herself after failing to spot clues about the teenager's illicit relationship with Forrest.

In an extract from her book The Runaway Schoolgirl, reproduced in the Daily Mail, the mother-of-five said she was stunned when she learned her daughter did not arrive at school on September 21, 2012.

It later unfolded that the girl had been taken to France by Forrest - months after the girl dismissed rumours of a relationship with her teacher.

Ms Williams said: "This kind of thing just didn't happen to decent and ordinary families like ours. Why hadn't I suspected what was going on? I felt like the worst mum in the world.

"A terrible suspicion began growing inside me that my darling daughter was dead."

Married Forrest, then 31, spent seven days on the run in France with the girl, who was then aged 15 and his pupil at Bishop Bell C of E School in Eastbourne.

Forrest was jailed for five-and-a-half years at Lewes Crown Court in June 2013 for child abduction and five counts of sexual activity with a child.

Ms Williams said she thought police initially suspected she had killed her own daughter, before they established the girl's abduction.

She said: "Finally, on Friday, a week after (my daughter's) disappearance, Hannah the liaison officer rang - and I heard the three words I'd been desperate to hear. 'We've got her!'"