Podcast investigation leads to conviction of former teacher

Chloe Hadjimatheou on the conviction of a Christ’s College teacher whose crimes were highlighted by an investigative audio series

Outside of Harrow Crown Court — Harrow Crown Court – (Credit – Des Blenkinsopp via Wikimedia Commons)

A former science teacher has been found guilty of sexually abusing two pupils at Christ’s College in 1988 — a case that only reached criminal court after a podcast investigation unearthed new witnesses.

On August 27th, a jury at Harrow Crown Court convicted Sally Anne Bowen of seven counts of indecent assault in a case involving two former pupils, including the main subject of the Observer/Tortoise podcast Lucky Boy.

The man, now 53, who went by the pseudonym Gareth in the podcast, says the abuse began when he was 14, and Bowen was 27. He says what began as a friendship with the chemistry teacher as they rode the bus together to and from school turned into a sexual relationship that lasted several months and took place at Bowen’s house most afternoons after school. He says staff and pupils both knew about it at the time, but no one intervened.

Gareth told the podcast that his life fell apart after Bowen left the school and ended the relationship. Unable to cope with the emotional turmoil it caused, his behaviour deteriorated and he was eventually asked to leave school.

Gareth first went to the police in 2014 after his own son turned 14 and, for the first time, he began to see the relationship with Bowen as abusive. The criminal investigation ran for years, with Bowen telling police that Gareth was lying and obsessed with her. But the police struggled to find witnesses from the school who were prepared to give evidence.

In 2018, frustrated with the lack of progress in the case, Gareth turned to the Teaching Regulation Agency, which investigates serious allegations against teachers on behalf of the Department for Education. A tribunal heard evidence from a number of witnesses, including the accused and alleged victim, and concluded that Bowen had more likely than not had sex with Gareth. In January 2024, it announced that it was banning Bowen from teaching for life.

The Lucky Boy podcast, released after the tribunal’s findings were made public, pieced together the full history of the case — including how Bowen had allowed another pupil to touch her breasts and kiss her at a cafe near the school during lunch break. That former pupil approached the police and became a second complainant in Bowen’s trial.

Weeks after the podcast was published, police charged Bowen with eight counts of indecent assault — the offence under the law as it stood in 1988. In her defence, Bowen said she had a physical condition that makes sex difficult and painful. She also told the court that she was born with a low libido and that when sex does occur with her long-term partner, she prayed he would be quick and that it took him “literally seconds.”

The prosecution argued that she struggled to have sexual relationships with adults and suggested that she may have targeted a 14-year-old because sex with a boy may have been less painful than with a fully grown man.

After six and a half hours of deliberation, the jury found Bowen guilty of all seven charges, after the judge directed them to acquit her of an eighth charge that did not meet the threshold of indecent assault.

Christ’s College, which operates as a mixed sex school today, has never apologised to Gareth or Bowen’s other victim. The school has not commented on Bowen’s teaching ban or conviction, and did not respond to questions from the Observer during its investigation. Bowen has previously said she believes Gareth, and all the other former pupils who have made allegations against her, need psychiatric help.

Chloe Hadjimatheou is the Observer’s narrative editor.

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