WILTSHIRE TIMES EXCLUSIVE: SCANDAL has erupted at a Trowbridge secondary school after a teacher abducted a 14-year-old girl.

Clarendon School history teacher and Baptist minister's son Matthew Birch, 26, is facing jail after admitting running off to London with the Trowbridge teenager.

Mr Birch, the son of North Bradley Baptist minister the Reverend Richard Birch, has been suspended from his post at the 1,439-pupil school following police charges.

The teenager's 51-year-old uncle has blasted staff at the Trowbridge secondary school for their dealings with the teacher and blamed headteacher Colin Kay for "sweeping the problem under the carpet".

He said: "I am disgusted with the school. When it all happened we went to see Colin Kay and he said he had just got back from his holidays and was too busy.

"The school's whole attitude was dismissive of us.

"It would have been to his benefit if he stood up and said 'right I am not having this going on'." The angry uncle, who lives in Trowbridge, said the scandal should have been "blasted" into the public arena from the start.

"My niece was extremely vulnerable. All she needed was some kind of stability and she met this idiot who exploited her vulnerability," he said.

"We were going out of our minds when she went missing. The police later found her at his house.

"She told her friends she was seeing a schoolteacher. But what can he see in a 14-year-old girl? We saw some of the letters and text messages she sent him. The police have her mobile phone."

The disgraced teacher, whose career in education has been shattered, was at his parents' home in Westbury Road when we tried to speak to him on Wednesday.

His father the Rev Birch, who preaches at the Baptist church next to the family home, told us his son did not want to comment.

Mr Birch was a former pupil of Clarendon School before becoming a teacher two years ago.

The 26-year-old packed toiletries at Acheson and Acheson on the White Horse Business Park before embarking on a career in teaching. A 16-year-old Clarendon School A-Level student said rumours about the teacher's suspension flew around the playground.

"There were a lot of rumours about what happened and then the teachers confirmed it to us.

"Everyone knew the gist of what was going on but it was a total surprise."

One 46-year-old parent, whose two sons go to the Frome Road school, said the headteacher had a duty to tell parents about the teacher's suspension. "He taught one of my sons so we should have been informed about what was going on," the Trowbridge mother said. "Under the circumstances I think all the parents should have been informed. We don't need to know full details but the fact he is suddenly not there at the school looks a bit suspicious."

Mr Kay was contacted by the Wiltshire Times but refused to comment on the suspension, referring us to County Hall.

A Wiltshire County Council spokesman said: "The school will be dealing with this matter under its own internal procedures once the court case has been concluded."

Mr Birch pleaded guilty to abducting the girl on April 22 at Trowbridge Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

Sentencing was adjourned for reports to be prepared which will include the option of a prison sentence.