Paedophile teacher Jeremy Forrest has split from his wife after a fling with a colleague 15-years his junior at the bakery where he worked .
Forrest, 42, has moved out of his marital home and is now living with his brother and sister-in-law nearby.
He made the decision after MailOnline revealed that he had been having an affair with a 27-year-old bakery assistant who he had been working alongside for several months at an artisan bakers owned by his cousins.
His latest dalliance has once again left him facing claims of inappropriate behavior following the ‘dangerous infatuation’ he had with a 15-year-old schoolgirl which ended in him serving time in jail and placed on the sex offenders register for life.
He sparked an international manhunt in 2012 when, as a maths teacher, he ran off to France with a teenage pupil, who he had been having a relationship with.
Forrest was dumped by his first wife when he was jailed for five and a half years.
Following his release from prison he retrained as a baker and married for a second time.
His second wife – who MailOnline is not naming – remained tight-lipped about her relationship with Forest.
Speaking from the couple’s smart detached house in Canterbury, Kent, she said simply: ‘I have no comment to make.’
However, a source told MailOnline that Forrest had ‘groomed’ his young assistant, who had no knowledge of his sordid past, by repeatedly assuring her he was planning on divorcing his wife.
‘Jeremy has now officially left his wife and his home and is trying to pursue a relationship with his assistant, who is 15 years younger than him’, the source revealed.
‘The assistant had no idea about his past and seems she found out when the MailOnline story was published.
‘He is staying with his brother and his brother’s wife who live in the same town.’
Forrest and his assistant are said to have got together five months ago and would sneak off from their workplace – J Ayre Bakers in Sidcup, Kent – for romantic liaisons away from their workplace.
The fallout from the alleged affair has led to behind-the-scenes turmoil at the long-established family run artisan bakers where Forrest had quietly established a new life away from his sordid past.
Managers held a meeting after rumours of the alleged affair began circulating among staff and proposed that the woman could move to a different part of the bakery where she would not be working directly alongside Forrest.
However, the woman, who MailOnline is not naming, decided she could no longer work there and quit her job.
A spokesman for J Ayre later confirmed: ‘From what I know, Jeremy did meet with the member of staff after work but that was it. They built up a friendship.
‘I am not aware of anything physical between them but given nothing happened in the bakery itself it is a private matter for Jeremy and the other member of staff.
‘They are both grown adults. There was a meeting held this week to find a way of them both being able to work here together.
‘A number of proposals were made including the other member of staff being moved to a different part of the bakery to Jeremy.
‘The outcome of that meeting is private.’
Forrest gained notoriety in 2012 when as a 30-year-old teacher he fled the UK with the schoolgirl he groomed when she was just 14.
After taking her virginity one week after her 15th birthday in his marital home in Ringmer, East Sussex, the pair went on to have sex in his car and in hotels.
When the relationship was about to be exposed they left for France – using the names Jack Dean and Gemma Grant.
At first, the girl’s devastated family feared she had been kidnapped but soon after CCTV footage showed her with her arms around her teacher on board a ferry from Dover to Calais.
They were on the run for eight days before being found in Bordeaux where he was arrested in front of her.
Forrest was detained by undercover police after being tipped off by the landlady of a pub in the French city where he had sought work under his new identity.
Forrest first became close with the girl during a school trip to America when she was aged 14.
He was married to his first wife, Emily Lovell, at the time and told the schoolgirl that he would divorce her so they could be together.
The former teacher last saw the girl in June 2013 at Lewes Crown Court in East Sussex, where she was forced to give evidence about their relationship.
He did however reply to her on Facebook following his release, a move that risked him being recalled to prison.
The message was a breach of Forrest’s license as he was ordered not to have any contact with her.
In an interview in 2017 the girl, then aged 19, said: ‘We have only spoken once, after I messaged a Facebook account that came up as a suggested friend.
‘He sounded the same and, importantly, happy. He had a new girlfriend.’
She told how the relationship with the man she called ‘Sir’ began after they exchanged messages during the summer holidays and Forrest asked her if she wanted ‘to go for a drive’.
The girl said she did not regret the relationship but added: ‘I now recognise it for what it was: A dangerous infatuation. One that cost both of us dearly.’
Forrest, who is originally from Inverurie in Aberdeenshire, was released from prison in 2016 and went on to start a new life as a baker while also becoming the frontman in a rock band.
In 2023 photos emerged of the then heavily tattooed Forest when he worked as head baker at Gilda Bakery near Canterbury, Kent.
By then he had married for a second time and was living under the name Jeremy Buonocore.
A biography of Forrest on the artisan bakery’s website failed to mention his teaching career or time in prison but featured a picture of him in the kitchen and read: ‘He is proudly a 5th generation baker, learning everything he knows from the experienced bakers that have passed down their tried and tested methods.’
Gilda Bakery terminated his employment after becoming aware of his dark past, saying it had come as a shock to their ‘close-knit team’.
Gilda founder and director, Jon Warren, shared a statement on social media which read: ‘Since learning of the sensitive nature of this employee’s history, it was mutually agreed that it was in the best interest of Gilda that his employment was terminated with immediate effect.’
Forrest apparently referred to his illicit relationship in songs he wrote for his band.
In one he wrote: ‘Girl, I’d do it all again’ and ‘I was afraid someone would catch us’.
