The worrying story behind the boarding school Caribbean runaways
Rebels on the run: Two VERY defiant teens. A wealthy father 3,000 miles away who didn’t know his girl was in love. The worrying story behind the boarding school Caribbean runaways
By BARBARA DAVIES From Daily Mail UK
Edward Bunyan and Indira Gainiyeva sneaked out of school early on Monday
The 16-year-olds are still believed to be in the Dominican Republic
Indira’s father, a wealthy businessman in Kazakhstan, worries his daughter is insecure and fell for a boy that made her feel special
Edward is heir to his late father’s large trust fund and described as ‘a rebel’
Facebook pictures show him smoking and wearing a ‘F*** the world’ t shirt
Local police in Puerto Plata admitted they had no leads on the couple’s whereabouts and they could be ‘anywhere’
Throughout the classrooms and corridors of Stonyhurst College, the names of Edward Bunyan and Indira Gainiyeva have already become the stuff of legend.
Ever since the 16-year-old pupils performed an audacious midnight flit from the £30,000-a-year Lancashire boarding school last Sunday and jetted off on a spur‑of-the-moment Caribbean beach holiday, their shenanigans have been the talk of the dormitories.
Many of the awestruck pupils are amazed that the runaway pair managed to sneak out without alerting staff or security guards at the mixed-sex Roman Catholic school, before jumping in a taxi with their suitcases and vanishing into the night.
No one even noticed they were missing until they failed to turn up for registration on Monday morning.
Indira and Edward — or Bonnie and Clyde as they have been nicknamed at Stonyhurst — are now staying at a five-star resort in Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, soaking up as much winter sun as they possibly can before they are dragged home to face the music.
They have switched off their mobiles and are using newly purchased pay-as-you-go phones so they cannot be detected.
What is less clear, however, is how they managed to pull off such an astonishing feat — and why they decided to embark on the mad stunt in the first place.
Certainly, neither pupil is short of money.
While Eddy is the Cheltenham-born son of a civil engineer with a distinguished military career, Indira’s family live in oil-rich Kazakhstan, in the city of Kyzylorda.
The pupils’ flights were booked online using a credit card with a generous limit, a luxury which, according to one source at Stonyhurst, many of the students there have.
‘Some whose families live more remotely have cards with no limit,’ says a pupil at the school, whose motto Quant Je Puis means As much as I can.
‘Some of the kids come from families with astronomical wealth, although most of the pupils are given an allowance and are very careful about what they spend.’
The story behind Eddy and Indira’s Caribbean adventure gives a fascinating insight into the super-rich world of Britain’s exclusive boarding schools, which are packed to the brim with foreign students whose wealthy families are desperate to give them a quintessentially English education.
Certainly that was what 50-year-old Ravil Gainiyev, who owns a chain of pharmacies in Kazakhstan, had in mind when he sent his daughter 3,000 miles away to England two years ago.
He admits now that having his headstrong offspring so far from home has made it impossible for him to keep an eye on her.
Speaking exclusively to the Mail, he says: ‘I try to help my children so they can be as well-educated as possible. She really wanted to study in England. She was to go to Cambridge University.
‘I told her: “Maybe you should study in Moscow instead. Why do you need to study so far from home?” But she wanted to study in England.’
Mr Gainiyev, speaking through an interpreter, says his 46-year-old wife Firuza is sick with worry about their daughter.
When the couple decided to send their daughter to the UK, they employed a Kazakh agency called Intellect to find Indira a place at a British boarding school, as well as appointing a guardian for her in Britain.
It was this unnamed guardian who was contacted by the police and the school when Indira went missing. No one at Stonyhurst has been in direct contact with Indira’s family in Kazakhstan.
Mr Gainiyev adds: ‘I wish I could speak to Indira and tell her: ‘Don’t ruin your future. You are so young. In time you will look at this situation and understand this.” I wish she’d get in touch. We’re worried sick about her.’
The families of the teenagers didn’t realise that the pair, who are said to have been dating for several months, were even in a relationship.
‘This is the first time I’ve heard about this boy. She’s never mentioned him before,’ says Mr Gainiyev. ‘Maybe this boy pulled the wool over her eyes. You know, 16 years old, hormones and so on. She’s very impressionable.
‘Maybe she has the kind of complex that young girls have, feeling she is not beautiful enough or that no one looks at her. Maybe this boy turned her head because she liked the attention he gave her.’
He admits giving his daughter ‘pocket money’, but refuses to say how much, adding: ‘She didn’t squander it. She only bought what she really needed, things like clothes.’
For the time being, Mr Gainiyev is waiting by the phone, hoping for some news of his daughter, who turned 17 yesterday.
‘I have a feeling inside that she is all right and will be found soon,’ he says. ‘There’s no point me flying to the Dominican Republic now because I have no idea where she is. Where would I look for her?’
Eddy Bunyan’s mother, 56-year-old Susannah Bunyan, meanwhile, is taking more direct action.
She is said to have flown out to the Dominican Republic from her home in Cadiz in North-west Spain on Thursday in the hope of being reunited with her son and bringing about a swift resolution to this unwelcome term-time drama.
According to Victoria Bunyan, the widow of Edward’s older half-brother Christopher (he died in 2004 at the age of 58), who lives in Wiltshire: ‘I don’t approve at all, but it sounds like he is having quite an adventure. It is going to get him in a lot of trouble, I am sure.’
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2541521/Worrying-story-boarding-school-Caribbean-runaways.html
Original story
Missing Stonyhurst College students flee to the Caribbean
By Jon Robinson, Reporter From Lancashire Telegraph
A teenage couple, who have gone missing from school, have jetted off to the Caribbean.
The two 16-year-olds left Stonyhurst College in the early hours of the morning in a taxi before getting on to a plane at Manchester Airport.
The teenagers, both boarding school students, have escaped to the Dominican Republic, police said.
The pair were last seen leaving the 400-year-old college in the Ribble Valley at 3am on Monday and boarded a flight later that day.
Edward Bunyan, 16, who is believed to hold dual British and Spanish citizenship, has travelled to the Caribbean with his girlfriend, Indira, also 16, who police have described as a foreign national.
Stonyhurst College told police at 3.30pm on Monday that two sixth form students were missing after making their own inquiries.
A police spokesman said: “We believe that the two students are travelling together.
“They got a taxi from Stonyhurst College at 3am on Monday and were last seen at Manchester Airport.
“We believe that we know their location and we are currently working with foreign police services to track them down.
“We are making inquiries at the moment to find out their exact location.
“We are concerned about their safety due to their age and the fact that they are travelling together without any adults.
“We have informed the families and we are keeping them fully up to date.”
There were several flights to Puerto Plata and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic on Monday from Manchester.
Fellow pupils took to social media to find news of their friends.
Within hours of the news of their disappearance, students on Twitter quickly started trending the hashtag ‘Where’s Bunyan’.Fellow pupil and Twitter user @HanFogden described Indira as ‘a quiet girl’.
A spokeswoman from Stonyhurst College said: “Two of our sixth formers left the college during the course of Monday morning.
“We have been working with their families and the police, who believe they may now have traced their location.
“We await further news from the police authorities.”
Stonyhurst College was founded in 1593 and is a Roman Catholic co-educational boarding and day school near Clitheroe.
The school received an outstanding inspection report in April 2010 from Ofsted.
It caters for more than 400 students aged between 13 and 18. Full boarding fees at Stonyhurst College for this academic year are £29,439 or £9,813 per term.
Weekly boarding fees for the year are £24,534 or £8,178 per term.
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UPDATE From Daily Mail UK
Pictured: Public school runaways, 16, found on beach at five-star luxury resort in the Caribbean
By Jaya Narain From Daily Mail UK
Edward Bunyan and Indira Gainiyeva jetted off to the Caribbean
Sneaked out of their top public school and flew to the Dominican Republic
The sweethearts have been staying at a five-star luxury break in the resort
It costs £29,439-a-year to study at Stonyhurst College in Clitheroe
Two sixth-form sweethearts who jetted off to the Caribbean after sneaking out of their top public school have been found at a beach resort, it emerged last night.
Edward Bunyan and Indira Gainiyeva, both 16, left their exclusive Catholic school in the middle of the night and flew to the Dominican Republic.
They landed at Puerto Plata on the holiday island and have been enjoying a five-star luxury break in the resort.
It is thought local police have traced the couple, but have not approached them directly.
Their parents were believed to be due to land in the Dominican Republic last night.
A source said: ‘They have been traced by officers but were apparently enjoying themselves in the sunshine at a beach resort.
‘Their parents are heading their way and I’m sure they’re both going to have a lot of explaining to do.’
Friends at the prestigious £29,439-a-year Stonyhurst College in Clitheroe, Lancashire, say the lovers had returned to the new term last week with a bad case of the post-Christmas holiday blues.
Tired of the persistent rain and cold and desperate for a bit of sunshine, they booked flights to the Dominican Republic on the internet before vanishing.
They sneaked out with their suitcases at 3am on Monday and took a £100 taxi ride to Manchester airport.
They were last spotted at terminal three before boarding an indirect flight to the Caribbean.
Indira, who is originally from Kazakhstan, enrolled at the 468-pupil school in September to study A-levels after attending Ovingdean Hall International Language College near her family home in Brighton to learn English.
Edward, originally from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, who has dual British and Spanish citizenship, is believed to have joined in 2010 after studying in Algerciras in Spain, and Canada.
Stonyhurst is a prestigious Catholic school whose former pupils include Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and former BBC director general Mark Thompson.
Last night a source said: ‘Edward is one of the cool kids. He’s a bit of a rebel but is quite mature for his age as he has lived all over the place.
‘He hooked up with Indira and they have been seeing a lot of each other at the school and their romance was an open secret among pupils.
‘It can be pretty miserable at a bleak 15th century Jesuit school in the middle of winter and close friends say they had a bad case of the post-holiday blues.
Indira, who is originally from Kazakhstan, enrolled at the 468-pupil school in September
‘They only came back from the Christmas break a week ago, but Edward apparently suggested they banish the blues by booking a break in the Caribbean and off they went. It was a surprise to everyone.’
The source added: ‘They are both seasoned travellers so hopping on to a jet for a flight to the Caribbean was less of a big deal than it would be for other kids.’
One pupil at the school said: ‘Ed’s very calm and friendly, and to be honest, I’m a little shocked he did this – they’ve pulled off quite an incredible stunt.
‘It would have been hard for them to get out as security guards patrol the buildings at night – it’s like escaping from Alcatraz.
‘Boys and girls are kept far apart at night in separate wings and doors are locked by 10pm.’
A spokesman for Stonyhurst College said: ‘Two of our sixth-formers left the college during the course of Monday morning.’
She added: ‘We have been working with their families and the police, who believe they may now have traced their location.’
A police spokesman said: ‘We believe that we know their location and we are currently working with foreign police services to track them down.
‘We are making inquiries at the moment to find out their exact location. We are concerned about their safety due to their age and the fact that they are travelling together without any adults.’
Pictures on Edward’s Facebook page show him smoking cigarettes and one features the caption, ‘**** the world’.
Another says: ‘For every dark night, there’s a brighter day.’
Fellow pupils inundated social media websites with comments about the drama, with many saying Edward and Indira had become ‘legends’ at the school.
Students on Twitter quickly started trending the hashtags #wheresbunyan and #hideandseek, with one saying: ‘Bunyan should be knighted.’
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