Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4

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Speaker 10 Tortoise.

Speaker 14 Just a warning before we start. This episode includes descriptions of sexual abuse and strong language.

Speaker 14 Last time on Lucky Boy.

Speaker 15 One, at no point did any pupil, parent, colleague, or senior manager ever confide in me at the time or thereafter.

Speaker 16 As a closing of ranks, then and now.

Speaker 15 I would have made an intervention and reported it.

Speaker 19 14 years old having sex with a 27-year-old teacher, that's going to have a certain effect on him.

Speaker 14 But I think what it's done is fossilized him him emotionally.

Speaker 19 So I would have been about 20, yeah, I'd have been about 20, I'd say. And what happened was, is I was on the tube, I was minding my own business on the tube, going from Golders Green to Hendon.

Speaker 14 At first, Gareth doesn't really notice when this this pretty ordinary looking man gets on at Golder's Green tube station.

Speaker 20 And he decided to kind of sit next to me on the tube opposite me.

Speaker 14 He seems to be staring at him so Gareth looks up and eventually he places the guy. He was a couple of years above him at Christ College School.

Speaker 21 Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah obviously we acknowledged each other but he's sitting opposite me.

Speaker 14 They exchange a few bland pleasantries and then he says this man smiles and he leans over and he says something like, now I remember you. You were the one fucking that chemistry teacher, Miss Bowen.

Speaker 14 And then he delivers a line that stuck in Gareth's head.

Speaker 19 You're not the only one.

Speaker 19 I remember those words, you're not the only one.

Speaker 22 And

Speaker 22 he got off the tube.

Speaker 14 Gareth sat on that Northern Line train, glued to his seat in shock.

Speaker 14 Just tell me, when he said that to you, you weren't, you're not the only one.

Speaker 14 Where was the hurt coming from? Was it that she'd betrayed you? Was it that you weren't the special one?

Speaker 21 Right, there you go.

Speaker 19 Yeah, of course she of course that would have been a betrayal.

Speaker 21 Well, after me, what was it?

Speaker 16 Was it before me?

Speaker 21 Was I like the little afterthought?

Speaker 14 Lots of victims of child sexual abuse are under the illusion that they instigated or chose the relationship. Or in Gareth's case that because he physically enjoyed it it wasn't abusive.

Speaker 14 And often years later there's a realization that there was a power imbalance and that's the moment when the fact that they were used begins to dawn on them. For Gareth, it's an agonising new reality.

Speaker 14 Because ever since that chance encounter on the tube train, he's wondered, are there other boys like him? Other lucky boys who've spent a lifetime figuring out just how unlucky they really were?

Speaker 14 For me, it gets to the heart of why this story matters. We know from Gareth that he's a casualty of abuse and of a school that refused to treat him as a victim of anything other than his own mischief.

Speaker 14 But if the school's actions enabled Miss Bowen to continue abusing, well, that's a bigger story altogether.

Speaker 14 If there are others, how many are we talking? Can they be tracked down? And if I find them, might they be willing to finally give Gareth the corroboration he's been searching for?

Speaker 14 I'm Chloe Hajimatho and from Tortoise, this is Lucky Boy.

Speaker 14 Episode 4, The Lucky Boys.

Speaker 24 You know, you've got to remember, when I first gave my

Speaker 25 interview to

Speaker 26 the police, I actually thought, you know, I fucking thought she was going to come out and tell the truth. Imagine that.

Speaker 26 Imagine that.

Speaker 24 Crazy shit.

Speaker 27 Thinking back at all the different stages and like,

Speaker 14 I mean, I shouldn't be like that yet. In 2020, when Gareth gets that call telling him the authorities won't be pressing charges against Miss Bowen, he's gutted.

Speaker 19 I actually offered the police, go to her and tell her, No criminal charges, but she has to talk to me.

Speaker 22 Offered it.

Speaker 19 And they said, oh, we wouldn't do that. Even if I wanted that, they will not agree to that.

Speaker 22 And I take that in a hat.

Speaker 12 I take that like that.

Speaker 19 It's like, why the fuck do I want to sit down and talk to her?

Speaker 22 What do I want to talk to her about?

Speaker 10 But you do.

Speaker 16 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 22 Desperately. Desperately.

Speaker 16 When I think about it now, I want to punch a wall.

Speaker 21 Like, I'm angry that I don't get to talk to her.

Speaker 14 What would you say to her?

Speaker 16 Do you know? I don't know.

Speaker 16 Would it be an angry? What's confusing is

Speaker 16 I might want to hug her. I might want to kiss her.
I might want to fuck her.

Speaker 22 I might want to punch her in her face.

Speaker 16 I might just want to cry.

Speaker 16 How about that?

Speaker 16 How fucked up's that?

Speaker 14 The thing with Gareth is his mental health issues mean he can't hold down a job. So he has loads of time on his hands to think about his next steps.

Speaker 28 And as far as he's concerned, the police dropping the case it isn't the end of the story the first photo i saw of bowen it was her with this young boy in like her in the background looking over this young boy's shoulder who didn't look dissimilar to me right

Speaker 14 sort of of her smiling and like that photo gareth's talking about was on a school website because after she left christ college back in 1988 miss bowen carried on teaching without consequence, 14 more schools in total.

Speaker 14 It's the lack of accountability that makes Gareth so angry. So, in 2022, Gareth goes to the Teaching Regulation Agency, the TRA.

Speaker 14 It's the bit of the Ministry of Education that oversees the profession. They have real power to intervene if someone makes a serious allegation against the teacher, even if it's historic.

Speaker 24 I didn't really realize that the TRA proceedings were going to be so court-like. I didn't, I made a complaint because that was all that was on the table at the time.

Speaker 24 But I remember when it fucking turned up and I was like, oh, fucking hell, this is big now.

Speaker 30 If this happens, this is big, this is serious. They're taking this seriously.

Speaker 24 People are reading oaths. People are just...
It's like.

Speaker 31 So this hearing, as I say, is being recorded. It's important that you speak clearly for us, as well as giving us a new idea.

Speaker 14 The TRA hearing is very court-like, although there are a couple of differences.

Speaker 14 For a start, although it has the look and feel of a criminal court, it follows the civil standard of proof rather than the criminal one.

Speaker 14 That means the allegations can be considered proven on the balance of probabilities. That's a lower standard than beyond reasonable doubt.

Speaker 14 In Gareth's case, the whole thing took place online via video link, and it went on for months.

Speaker 14 What you're listening to is a recreation based on a transcript of the hearing.

Speaker 14 The entire thing runs close to 200 pages so we comb through it and these are the sections we think are the most revealing of how the case played out.

Speaker 31 I know that you understand for the purposes of this hearing that we will refer to you as Pupil A.

Speaker 33 Obviously

Speaker 14 it's now November 2022, and Gareth, or Pupil A, as he's being publicly referred to in the hearing, is sitting at home in his living room, looking at a handful of boxes on a screen.

Speaker 14 Inside the boxes are barristers, panelists, and

Speaker 31 Miss Bowen. If you'd like to just

Speaker 31 put the microphone on and just say a few words for the tape so that we have that recorded.

Speaker 34 My name is Sally Ann Bowen, and I'm the accused teacher in this case.

Speaker 14 It's the first time he's seen her since she told him she was leaving for a kibbutz in Israel 34 years ago. Back then in 1988, they were teacher and pupil.

Speaker 14 Now they're both adults, he a man of 50 and she in her 60s, just a few years short of retirement.

Speaker 14 All this took place months before Gareth came to see me with his story, but everything you've heard him say over the last three episodes, his entire account of what went on between them was put to Miss Bowen by barristers who cross-examined her over several days.

Speaker 34 I do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that the evidence I shall.

Speaker 14 I always thought it was pretty unlikely that I'd get the chance to speak to Sally Ann Bowen.

Speaker 10 I had hoped.

Speaker 14 I wrote her a letter and emails.

Speaker 14 But the TRA hearing means that even if she doesn't want to talk to me, we can hear from Miss Bowen herself.

Speaker 14 This isn't her real voice, but these are her real words.

Speaker 33 How does it feel for you to finally have your say in a hearing before a decision maker about those allegations?

Speaker 34 Yeah, it's a huge relief. I've had to live with these lies for eight and a half years.
I've never yet had an opportunity to verbally defend myself, so I'm relieved.

Speaker 14 As she's being questioned by her own lawyer, Gareth's watching it it all on his laptop screen at home. It's the same woman he remembers.

Speaker 14 Older now, but still the same long blonde hair and the same mannerisms.

Speaker 14 He's nervous as hell, but he's also dying to know what she's going to say.

Speaker 33 What is it like to sit through that evidence?

Speaker 34 It was horrible, because he's not telling the truth.

Speaker 34 I felt embarrassed for him because, well, he knew that I knew what he was saying wasn't true.

Speaker 34 I also

Speaker 34 felt hurt because I was only ever friendly towards this student. And I thought, why are you doing this?

Speaker 14 She comes across as well-spoken and articulate. And according to Gareth, she sounds much younger than she actually is.

Speaker 14 The victim in any kind of trial or hearing doesn't get a lawyer. The allegations are put to Miss Bowen by a presenting officer for the TRA, the lawyer whose job it is to act as a kind of prosecutor.

Speaker 14 Miss Bowen tells him that yes, she did teach at Christ's College School in the late 1980s, and she remembers Gareth quite well.

Speaker 17 You describe him as being not a nice person, a pest.

Speaker 14 Yeah.

Speaker 17 That he hassled you in not a very nice way. He was quite aggressive.

Speaker 14 Yeah.

Speaker 14 She says she remembers that Gareth had a crush on her, but she says the feeling was not reciprocated.

Speaker 34 Of course not. No, no, absolutely not.

Speaker 34 I talked to him on the bus, so I didn't do that with any other student, because no other student wanted to sit on the bus and talk to me, but I didn't give, like, I didn't treat him any differently from any other student.

Speaker 34 I was just friendly. I was friendly with all the students.

Speaker 14 Before long, the tribunal arrives at the questions everyone's been waiting for.

Speaker 17 And removed your trousers, pulled down his boxer shorts. That didn't happen, did it?

Speaker 34 No, that's rubbish. That's impossible.
He didn't come into the house. He didn't come into my room.
It's impossible.

Speaker 14 As I go through the transcript of the TRA, in the back of my head I have all the evidence I've been gathering from so many witnesses and one student in particular who I managed to get on the phone just before writing this episode.

Speaker 14 This guy was in Garrisia at school and he told me that back in 1988, he and a group of Christ College friends walked round to Miss Bowen's house after school one afternoon.

Speaker 14 And when they knocked on the door and she answered, he says, Gareth walked down the stairs to greet them. What he tells me puts Gareth inside her house.

Speaker 14 But the panel judging Gareth's claims at the TRA hearing, they have none of this evidence. And Miss Bowen denies all the significant memories Gareth's told me about.

Speaker 14 The incident in the cafe with the pornet mag, taking him to the pub and allowing him to come into her house.

Speaker 33 Did you ever have any form of sexual contact with him?

Speaker 34 Absolutely not.

Speaker 14 At this point in her evidence, Miss Bowen seems very sure of herself.

Speaker 14 Gareth has to sit in silence while she's talking, but he's seething.

Speaker 32 I can tell you for certain she's not telling the truth.

Speaker 14 We've used AI to recreate Gareth's part of the transcript.

Speaker 17 What Miss Bowen says is that she had no physical contact with you whatsoever, including kissing, masturbation or sex. What do you say about that?

Speaker 32 So she's a liar.

Speaker 32 And she knows, and I know that she's a liar.

Speaker 14 At this stage in the tribunal, I have to say, things don't look great for Gareth. He's bitter and emotional, and when he's cross-examined, he comes across as difficult.

Speaker 14 In contrast, Miss Bowen's stoic and composed.

Speaker 14 But then something happens.

Speaker 14 When she's being questioned by the TRA's lawyer that's acting as a kind of prosecutor, she begins offering up new information, stuff that Gareth's never even mentioned in his allegations or in his testimony.

Speaker 14 Like the fact that she enjoyed a lot of the attention she got from pupils at the school.

Speaker 17 The schoolboys were attracted to you. Would that be fair to say?

Speaker 34 Yes.

Speaker 17 And you felt flattered at the time from that interest from the pupils?

Speaker 34 Yes, I used to get really nice compliments. Obviously I was going to feel flattered by that.

Speaker 17 You were flattered by fourteen or fifteen year old boys expressing a an interest in you?

Speaker 34 Well, they would say things like you look nice today, Miss, or Your hair looks nice, you know, I like your top, or whatever. Yes, of course I'm going to be flattered by that.

Speaker 17 Any other comments on your physical appearance, other than those?

Speaker 34 Some of them were sexual, but I used to ignore them. I used to get wolf whistled, cat calls as I walked

Speaker 34 across the playground. You know, there's from the chemistry building to the main block.

Speaker 14 But

Speaker 34 I just ignored comments like that. But I said thank you if someone said, you look nice today, Miss.
And of course I did.

Speaker 17 Were you not flirting with Pupil A? No.

Speaker 34 No, not at all.

Speaker 34 What are you doing this evening? No, I don't think that's flirting. I was just answering his questions.

Speaker 17 Talking about staff members as well, whether you fancied those staff members?

Speaker 35 Yeah, which

Speaker 34 did I like any of the male teachers, that kind of thing?

Speaker 34 I don't consider that flirting. Just answering his questions.

Speaker 14 And then the lawyer for the TRA turns to what seemed to be inconsistencies in her testimony.

Speaker 36 Can you try to explain to the panel how when you describe him as always friendly and chatty, yet upon the other hand as being a pest and a being hassling, how those two narratives align?

Speaker 34 Okay, so he was friendly. He was never unpleasant to me and I was...

Speaker 34 I was friendly. I didn't want to hurt his feelings and say, no, no, you can't sit on the bus next to me and go and sit somewhere else.

Speaker 34 He was a pest and yes, I did get the feeling that I was being hassled and followed around, but it didn't bother me.

Speaker 34 Yes, so he was friendly towards me, he wasn't unpleasant towards me.

Speaker 14 More inconsistencies are raised. She told the police she'd only ever spoken to Gareth on the bus once or twice, but now in the TRA she's admitting they would sit together regularly.

Speaker 14 She also seems to suddenly remember why witnesses would have seen them together at the pub and in Edgware, and Sally Ann Bowen starts sounding flustered.

Speaker 16 So,

Speaker 17 given that you've provided now a more accurate picture of Pupil A as being someone who was always friendly, always pleasant towards you, very chatty, why didn't you provide that more later and better picture of Pupil A as against casting aspersions that he was not a nice person, a pest, he hassled you?

Speaker 17 Why was that?

Speaker 34 Because my police interview, I didn't have time to prepare my answers.

Speaker 34 I was first of all blindsided by this allegation, struggling in my memory to remember events from whatever it was, 27 years ago, and I didn't have time, and it was quick-fired questions.

Speaker 34 It wasn't a cozy chat sitting with the police. I had one police officer just staring at me, and the other one firing questions quickly.

Speaker 34 I was answering to the best of my ability, with no preparation whatsoever to answer these questions.

Speaker 34 If I'd had time, then I would have perhaps been able to answer more fully, but I didn't have time.

Speaker 17 Well, it's not about

Speaker 17 presenting a story, it's about being honest to the police.

Speaker 34 I didn't remember. It's as simple as that.
I didn't remember that at the time, but I did remember when I started to think about this student. I did remember things about this student from that time.

Speaker 34 I just.

Speaker 14 Gareth's sitting on his sofa at home, taking this all in. And the one thing he can't get over is that she's speaking to the lawyer in this way that he recognises.

Speaker 37 There's a sexuality to it as well.

Speaker 37 And I found that watching her with the TRA, that I found that she was, you know, because she was under pressure, she was pulling out all her tricks of manipulation.

Speaker 20 You know,

Speaker 20 I found them very reminiscent of the interactions I had with her

Speaker 25 as

Speaker 24 child.

Speaker 20 That's why when I came to that point and I addressed her directly, it was because I recognised her.

Speaker 27 I recognised the faces she was pulling and the way she was being, yeah?

Speaker 14 Gareth and Miss Bowen are only ever meant to answer the questions put to them.

Speaker 14 But there's this moment when Gareth is so overwhelmed by all the emotions flooding through him that he forgets all the other people on the video call and he speaks to her directly.

Speaker 14 Suddenly, it's just him and Sally Ann again.

Speaker 32 You know the truth. We do know the truth, Sally Ann.
And, you know, you had sex with me on multiple occasions. Now

Speaker 32 you can try and put a new account. You can dress it up how you want, and

Speaker 32 you can split hairs over dates.

Speaker 32 You can split hairs over when certain things happen and when they didn't happen.

Speaker 32 And I was, um, despite thinking that I was an adult, I was a very young and naive 14-15-year-old.

Speaker 14 Staring right at him, Gareth says she doesn't flinch. It's impossible to tell what she's thinking, but Gareth can't stop.

Speaker 32 Cleanse your soul, man. Don't take that shit with you.
Because you take that shit with you, Sally Ann. It's going to be on your soul.
Just own it.

Speaker 32 Own it.

Speaker 14 In December 2023, the panel retires to consider the evidence.

Speaker 14 The panel's made up of three people: there's a teacher, and there are two other members of the public who've handled complex investigations before.

Speaker 14 When they're ready, they call all the participants for a final video call to announce their finding.

Speaker 14 Gareth's testimony is consistent and convincing, they say, And it's more likely than not that Sally Ann Bowen did meet Gareth outside of school and that she allowed him to visit her at her home and that she did engage in sexual activity with him.

Speaker 14 The only allegation they're not convinced of is that she bought him alcohol in a pub.

Speaker 14 Sally Ann Bowen's obliged to be present for the entire finding, but when it becomes clear which way things are going, she gets up and walks away from her laptop.

Speaker 33 You will note that Miss Bowen is not here, that she's

Speaker 33 unable to remain on the call and is,

Speaker 33 you may think understandably, maybe not,

Speaker 33 devastated by the findings that you've made so far, which

Speaker 33 she can't continue to hear.

Speaker 14 The Teaching Regulation Agency bans Miss Bowen from the profession indefinitely.

Speaker 14 It's a really big deal and what's striking about it is how categorical they are in their finding.

Speaker 14 Especially when you consider that almost all the panel had to go on was two competing accounts, he said, she said.

Speaker 14 Just like me, they found Gareth's account believable. The detail, the consistency in his story, and the fact that he doesn't always put himself in a favourable light.

Speaker 14 It's a huge vindication for Gareth after so many years of being being doubted.

Speaker 14 All those teachers who said they didn't know what went on back then or that Sally Ann Bowen wouldn't have behaved that way,

Speaker 14 well, it's made their positions a lot more difficult.

Speaker 27 It was, um,

Speaker 38 yeah, there was a lot riding on it.

Speaker 38 There was a lot riding on it.

Speaker 18 So,

Speaker 26 yeah, it was massive relief.

Speaker 18 Like, overwhelming relief.

Speaker 24 I actually thought he was over.

Speaker 18 And I meant all right.

Speaker 27 Gordon, you can have a laugh at me.

Speaker 25 And then I called.

Speaker 19 Well, no, but it wasn't finished anyway.

Speaker 14 It wasn't finished because stuck in Gareth's mind was what that guy on the tube had told him, that he wasn't the only one.

Speaker 14 When Sally Ann Bowen was banned from teaching by the TRA, a few local papers reported the story and it went viral among former Christ College boys.

Speaker 14 Lots of guys in his ear were pretty sure Gareth was the victim because the rumours were so widespread at the time.

Speaker 14 But other former Christ College students just saw references to Pupil A as he was known in the tribunal and a few of them told me they were all messaging each other trying to guess who it might be.

Speaker 14 I've spent the last year calling as many of them as I could find, some scattered as far as Australia, Holland and the US.

Speaker 14 What I was hoping is that they'd give me a name, the name of the lucky boy that the guy on the tube was alluding to.

Speaker 14 But it turns out there isn't a name. There are lots and lots of names of boys who were rumoured to be having sex with Miss Bowen.

Speaker 14 And the guy on the tube, he could have been referring to any one of them.

Speaker 14 But one guy in particular kept coming up.

Speaker 14 All I'll say about him is that he was a member of the Christ College cricket team and he was a few years older than Gareth. He would have been in the sixth form back in the late 80s.

Speaker 14 Some of his closest friends told me they were convinced that the cricketer had a sexual relationship with Miss Bowen. One of them said he'd even seen Miss Bowen kissing him at a party.

Speaker 14 The cricketer wouldn't engage with me directly, but he passed on a message to say that, yes, he did have a sexual relationship with Sally Ann Bowen when he was still a student at the school.

Speaker 14 At the time he would have been over 16, so over the age of consent.

Speaker 14 Today it's illegal for a person in a position of authority like a teacher to have sex with anyone under the age of 18 but that law didn't exist back then.

Speaker 14 The cricketer told me what happened with Miss Bowen felt like a positive experience for him and he doesn't want to talk about it.

Speaker 14 But he seems to be confirming that he was another boy at the school who was having sex with Miss Bowen.

Speaker 20 I keep coming back to that fight I had with one of the six formers in at the Finchley Carnival and he seemed so, so sure in himself.

Speaker 14 When I tell Gareth about the cricketer, it takes him back to one of the many fights he had. This particular one was with a much older boy.

Speaker 19 When he said to me, oh, she was a slag,

Speaker 37 the way he said it to me, I felt that he knew.

Speaker 20 He he like that's why I could that's why I became very upset about it, because he did it with such confidence, if you like.

Speaker 14 All those jibes about Miss Bowen? Back then it felt like the other kids were just making digs at him. But now Gareth's reframing those comments.
Maybe they were trying to tell him something.

Speaker 14 He was hoping to learn if there was any truth to what the guy on the tube had told him. But now he's found out.
It's a real blow.

Speaker 19 Yeah,

Speaker 20 I said from the start that I didn't know anything, and I knew this process was going to be difficult for me because

Speaker 19 it's not nice to

Speaker 19 sit here and think I was basically like

Speaker 18 her

Speaker 20 plaything and that I was really nothing.

Speaker 18 Because, like you said, I mean, whether wrong or right,

Speaker 25 I thought

Speaker 25 that

Speaker 38 I was one selected out of 900

Speaker 19 and I know it doesn't make much difference but you see you know learning these things I I don't know I feel a lot I guess I feel a lot a lot more used then

Speaker 14 when I started working on this story a year ago I was trying to find out if anyone could confirm Gareth's memories and I wanted to know why people were so reluctant to talk about it.

Speaker 14 Where I've ended up is somewhere far darker and harder to report.

Speaker 14 It's become clear to me that Gareth's name is one of many that circulated the school alumni network after the TRA finding was made public.

Speaker 14 I've looked into all the other names of men, then boys, who were rumoured to have had sex or sexual contact with Miss Bowen.

Speaker 14 Some of the names connected with her, like the cricketer, are more credible than others, but 30 years down the line, it's become almost impossible to sift schoolyard bravado and the sexism of the time from substantial allegations.

Speaker 14 So I haven't been able to corroborate most of these individuals confidently enough to lay them out for you here. But it leaves me with a clear view.

Speaker 14 Had the school or the authorities at the time taken seriously what was happening with Gareth, happening to Gareth,

Speaker 14 our view on Sally Ann Bowen would be so much clearer.

Speaker 14 We'd know if there were other victims and we'd know whether it was safe for her to continue teaching at 14 other schools. As it stands, we don't.

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Speaker 35 I know, but we need to find him.

Speaker 14 There is still one more person I'd love to speak to. The Asian boy from Christ College School who was walking Miss Bowen home.

Speaker 14 Gareth came across him the very first time he walked to Miss Bowen's house. He remembers closing the door on this guy before going in for a cigarette and a cup of tea.

Speaker 14 After that, he never saw that kid again.

Speaker 39 So what I need you to do is to sit down and think about any

Speaker 39 identifying features, anything that you can remember about him. Just put it into words.

Speaker 14 So I get a friend to post on one of the biggest alumni WhatsApp groups to see if anyone recognises Gareth's description. And then we wait.

Speaker 14 It feels like a long shot and honestly, I'm not really expecting anyone to respond. So I'm really surprised when a man eventually replies saying he's the guy who regularly walked Miss Bowen home.

Speaker 14 And then he drops a bombshell. He says he was also involved sexually with Sally Ann Bowen.

Speaker 14 But he's not sure he wants to talk about it.

Speaker 25 Hi. Hello Chloe, how are you doing?

Speaker 14 I call Gareth to fill him in and this particular bit of news that a boy his own age in his year at school had a relationship with Sally Ann Bowen, it hits him much harder than he's expecting.

Speaker 39 And I know and it's it's difficult for me to say to you, don't get caught up emotionally until we've confirmed it because that's just there's no point in saying that and I can imagine you've already gone there in your head.

Speaker 37 Well whatever he says I just wanted to express the fact that I'm a very mixed up place for the last two hours.

Speaker 30 To feel jealousy or to feel competitiveness with another 51 year old man 36 years later is an extremely confusing feeling for me.

Speaker 37 And my memories are being rewritten rewritten at the age of 51 because I didn't know certain things at the time.

Speaker 26 I'm slowly realizing that, like, um,

Speaker 25 yeah, I don't, I don't think she ever loved me.

Speaker 14 He's a little bit funny.

Speaker 12 He's still working me, aren't you?

Speaker 13 Yeah, I'm going to put a little bit of account.

Speaker 14 After months of texting back and forth, debating whether or not to talk to me, the guy who walked Miss Bowen home accepts an invitation to come around to mine for lunch.

Speaker 14 Shall we have something to eat?

Speaker 12 Are you hungry? Whatever. Whatever's the better.

Speaker 14 He's friendly and open, but he's clear. He doesn't want us to use his real name, so we're calling him Sanjay.

Speaker 25 I had earrings.

Speaker 14 I don't remember this, but it turns out I've met Sanjay before.

Speaker 14 He came to a house party I threw when I was 17.

Speaker 10 Back then we were all goths.

Speaker 40 Yeah I don't think I look like one because I think in my head all goths were white kids and they were very pasty and with very dark hair so my hair was dark and my hair was long but I didn't quite look the part look the same.

Speaker 14 We spent a while rewinding the clock and talking about a lot of the same bands we were into and then the conversation turns to Gareth.

Speaker 14 Sanjay remembers him as a bit arrogant, a bit of a bully.

Speaker 14 And although there are common threads, Sanjay's experience is very different from Gareth's.

Speaker 15 So

Speaker 14 when did you sort of have any interaction with her? When did you start having any interaction with her?

Speaker 40 Around about the age of 14, 15. So we're talking, what, 1988?

Speaker 40 Somehow, I got involved in a small group of people that started going to a cafe at lunchtime with Miss Bowen.

Speaker 14 The CAF.

Speaker 14 The same one where Gareth says he had his first mind-blowing experience over a porno mag with Miss Bowen.

Speaker 40 I guess that was when I got to know the guys that would be in the cafe more because we didn't really have that much social interaction otherwise.

Speaker 13 Who were they?

Speaker 12 Just proper names?

Speaker 14 For now, yeah, we'll cut this back out because we're not going to live.

Speaker 14 He tells me the name of two boys, names that have come up in my investigation. I've contacted both of them, but neither would agree to talk to me.

Speaker 14 There was also a third boy,

Speaker 40 Gareth.

Speaker 14 Sanjay says that he, Gareth, and the other two would meet up regularly at the CAF with Miss Bowen. The incredible thing is, Gareth has no memory whatsoever of sitting with Sanjay in the cafe.

Speaker 14 But Sanjay remembers him being there, at least for some of the time. And what did you talk about when you would all hung out there?

Speaker 12 I really don't know.

Speaker 40 At first, anyway, or general conversation, I can't really remember.

Speaker 14 He says that after a while, those lunch break chats with Miss Bowen in the cafe change in tone.

Speaker 14 The other boys, who are all much wilder and more confident than Sanjay, they start pushing boundaries and finding that there isn't much resistance.

Speaker 40 They would be much more flirtatious, particularly with Miss Bowen.

Speaker 18 They were a little bit more crude or rude with the sort of things they were coming up with.

Speaker 40 And I just sat there and I was part of it.

Speaker 14 Sanjay remembers the boys having porno mags in the cafe. And he says, Miss Bowen flicks through the pages while they ask her which of the models she looks like when she's naked.

Speaker 14 Just like Gareth, Sanjay's mind is a bit blown by this explicit sexual conversation with a grown woman, but he's shy and confused about it all.

Speaker 14 And then, what happened?

Speaker 40 I think it's fair to say things started getting a little bit more inappropriate.

Speaker 40 So

Speaker 40 I was egged on by the others to give her a kiss. So I'd kiss her.

Speaker 40 I was egged on to touch her.

Speaker 14 When you say kiss are we talking about a peck on the lips or are we talking about a snob?

Speaker 40 Just a kiss on the lips and

Speaker 40 it made me feel amazing but at the same time I felt a bit embarrassed and

Speaker 40 she wouldn't stop it from happening.

Speaker 14 And then when you said touch her?

Speaker 40 Yeah, so

Speaker 40 there was touching in inappropriate places.

Speaker 14 Where does that mean? Breasts between the legs?

Speaker 40 Both.

Speaker 40 I put my hand between her legs on her lap.

Speaker 14 In the cafe?

Speaker 40 In the cafe.

Speaker 13 And

Speaker 14 I'm trying to understand how, like, they would say to you, go on, touch her, and then you would fondle her breasts.

Speaker 40 Yeah, so

Speaker 40 it was... a suggestion that one of the lads in particular would have had

Speaker 40 and

Speaker 40 he would have done it himself to show me me what I need to do.

Speaker 40 I grabbed her breasts on one occasion and just held them. I didn't do anything more than that.

Speaker 14 The leader of the group is the first to act. He's the first to touch Miss Bowen.
And then Sanjay says he encourages him to do the same.

Speaker 14 This guy didn't want to engage with me and I'm not going to name him here.

Speaker 14 To be clear, Sanjay says Miss Bowen's allowing them to touch her on multiple occasions. And this isn't in some secret location.
It's all happening at the cafe, very near the upper school building.

Speaker 14 Were there other people around?

Speaker 40 There were staff were there. There would have been other people at other tables.

Speaker 40 Again, when you look back at it, I can't imagine what that would have looked like or what that would have seemed like to other people sat at other tables having their lunches or cup of tea or whatever.

Speaker 40 No one really told us to stop. no one told us ever to get out, no one ever came past the table and made any comments, we just sat there and this sort of stuff used to happen.

Speaker 14 The cafe would have been busy and Miss Bowen apparently often sat with her back to the counter and so this wouldn't have been easy for the cafe staff to see.

Speaker 14 Sanjay says he can't be sure how many times they meet like this with Miss Bowen, but he thinks it's several times over a period of a few weeks, by which point they've clearly crossed a line.

Speaker 40 Well, certainly from my own perspective, I've already gotten to a place where I started becoming quite infatuated by her.

Speaker 14 Just like Gareth, Sanjay feels drawn in by her, by the fact that he says she's allowing him to touch her and kiss her. But the really big difference is that Sanjay isn't alone with her.

Speaker 14 It's a shared experience between a group of boys.

Speaker 14 What he does have that feels more special is what happens after school. Miss Bowen lets Sanjay walk her home, and when they get to her place, he says she lets him kiss her goodbye.

Speaker 14 Then, one afternoon, she tells him she's having a fireworks party in a couple of days. Would he like to come round?

Speaker 14 He thinks it might just be him she's inviting.

Speaker 40 And I can't be sure whether the other guys from the cafe were as well,

Speaker 40 but it felt to me that that was an invitation for me to go round to hers.

Speaker 14 When the evening comes he changes his mind and he stands her up.

Speaker 40 I think I ended up at my mate's house instead

Speaker 40 and I remember thinking most of that evening just sitting there going, I should have gone to Miss Bowen's house. If I went there then maybe I would have got more than just a kiss on my lips.

Speaker 14 For ages afterwards he feels he's chickened out of something that could have been important for him.

Speaker 14 And then, years later, when he hears on the grapevine that Gareth's been badly damaged by his experience, he looks back and wonders whether this was a sliding doors moment.

Speaker 14 That if he'd gone to her house that night, he could have ended up somewhere like Gareth.

Speaker 14 After that missed fireworks party, he stops walking her home. And the meetings in the cafe, they stop soon after that too.

Speaker 40 And when she left school, it was very much much a case of one day she was there, the next day there was a rumour, the day after that she was gone.

Speaker 14 What was the rumour?

Speaker 40 That she'd slept with Gareth.

Speaker 40 Hello.

Speaker 18 Hi. How are you doing?

Speaker 18 Okay, have you got your recorder? Yeah,

Speaker 40 always.

Speaker 40 So

Speaker 14 Gareth's been waiting with bated breath to hear what Sanjay's story is. What he's hoping is that Sanjay can corroborate the fact that he went into Miss Bowen's house.

Speaker 14 But Sanjay doesn't remember Gareth being with them when he walked her home. None of it matches in the way Gareth's hoping, and he's really upset about it.

Speaker 19 Right, right.

Speaker 24 All I can say to that, this is my response to it.

Speaker 20 Um

Speaker 20 don't remember any of that in the cafe

Speaker 27 at all being a regular thing.

Speaker 20 At all, and I mean at all.

Speaker 14 When you stop and think about it, it's not so surprising that Sanjay and Gareth's stories don't align. Remember, all this happened 35 years ago.

Speaker 14 Our brains can't possibly retain everything that happens. Our memory filters out things that don't feel that significant to us.

Speaker 14 The experiences Gareth says he had one-on-one with Miss Bowen in that cafe, they were so huge and life-changing that they're the bits he says are clear.

Speaker 14 A couple of days later, when he's had a chance to process it all, Gareth calls me back.

Speaker 19 The only thing that I would say I'm surprised and sort of disappointed in my own reaction is that I found it like

Speaker 19 very unsettling.

Speaker 19 It's like finding your first girlfriend with kissing all the other boys behind your back. And I think there was resistance from me to listen to, like,

Speaker 37 I don't really want to hear that, but I mean, I don't doubt what he says.

Speaker 27 It's too similar to my experience for him to make it up. Yeah.

Speaker 19 That's the truth. It's too fucking similar.

Speaker 36 If you're going to make something up, you don't put it in a cafe with loads of witnesses.

Speaker 39 You make something up where you're alone with somebody.

Speaker 20 Yeah.

Speaker 19 And the thing is,

Speaker 14 it's too fucking weird as well, this idea that he was touching her up in front of all these other people.

Speaker 38 Yeah, very odd, but then the truth is odd, isn't it? That's the problem with like the truth. It always is odd.

Speaker 29 It's not like

Speaker 14 it doesn't run in a straight line.

Speaker 22 That's right.

Speaker 14 There's no satisfying, neat story here where one man's memories mirror the others. But what there is, is a clear theme that runs through both of their accounts.

Speaker 14 That Miss Bowen engaged in sexual activity with them.

Speaker 14 I've tried very hard to persuade Sally Ann Bowen to talk to me, but she hasn't responded to any of my letters or emails.

Speaker 14 The final email I send her sets out in detail all the allegations I've uncovered over the last year.

Speaker 14 I only know she's seen it because her partner sends me a very angry email, but Sally Ann Bowen never replies.

Speaker 10 And what about the school?

Speaker 14 After the TRA reached its finding, Christ College didn't make any kind of public acknowledgement of the fact that their regulatory body had banned Sally Ann Bowen from teaching and had found Gareth's allegations to be credible.

Speaker 14 Still, I was hoping the current head teacher might be willing to hear me out about everything I uncovered, the three cases, Gareth, Sanjay and the Cricketer, in which one of their staff had allegedly engaged in sexual activity with pupils.

Speaker 14 as well as all the witnesses who claimed to have seen and heard Sally Ann Bowen's inappropriate behaviour with students.

Speaker 14 In other schools where historical sex abuse has been uncovered, victims have received acknowledgement and apologies.

Speaker 14 That back then, the institution failed those pupils, even if today it's different and safeguarding is taken more seriously.

Speaker 14 I tried numerous times to get in touch with the current administration at Christ College.

Speaker 14 When eventually I managed to speak to someone, I was told in no uncertain terms that the school would not be engaging with me on any level. level.

Speaker 14 Both Gareth and Sanjay have come to feel that what happened to them wasn't right. That's what's propelled them to speak to me.

Speaker 14 They also have something else in common.

Speaker 14 They've both chosen to remain anonymous, not because they're ashamed of what happened to them, but because they're pretty sure they'll attract a lot of criticism from people who still see them as lucky boys.

Speaker 14 Since I started reporting this story, it feels like there are more and more newspaper articles about female teachers having sex with their students, perhaps because I'm looking for them.

Speaker 14 I found at least a dozen cases reported in the UK last year alone, the most notorious being that of Rebecca Joynes, who was convicted for having sex with two 15-year-old boys from the school where she taught, and ended up giving birth to a baby fathered by the child she was having sex with.

Speaker 14 Her victim's experience and Gareth's are separated by more than three decades, but they're so similar that it sent chills down my spine.

Speaker 14 In a victim statement read out after Rebecca Joynes was sentenced, the boy said he initially struggled to come to terms with his abuse and was in complete denial.

Speaker 14 He said, I would argue until I was blue in the face protecting her and would not hear a bad word said against her. I felt as though I'd betrayed somebody I love and had done wrong by giving evidence.

Speaker 14 It took him years to realise he'd been coerced, controlled, and manipulated by his teacher, he said. And he describes how the entire affair and the lies he told destroyed his family.

Speaker 13 I read

Speaker 27 there was an article today as well in the Daily Mail.

Speaker 29 It didn't set me off well for the day, I have to say, but it was an article about a 21-year-old being with a 16-year-old boy.

Speaker 27 I went, um, stupidly, I went through their 238 comments

Speaker 30 and it was just a succession if really of like um the usual shit.

Speaker 27 When I was 16 this would have been a dream.

Speaker 29 I bet the boy thinks he has won the lottery. Legal, bet the lad is having a great time and learning.

Speaker 37 It just goes to show that like the attitude of society towards this kind of like thing is like

Speaker 30 she can even help him with his GCSE reset.

Speaker 29 Lucky boy.

Speaker 14 The way these stories are reported is very different when the perpetrator's a man. He's a sicko, a predator.

Speaker 14 But if the offender's a woman, she's sex mad and sex addicted, followed by long descriptions about how attractive she is.

Speaker 14 And always, there's an assumption that sex for teenage boys is an achievement, and most of all, the idea that boys are somehow immune to emotional harm.

Speaker 14 Gareth now believes he was hurt by his relationship with Miss Bowen, but also hurt by the cover-up that came after and continued into his adulthood.

Speaker 14 What's been harder and taken longer for him to recognize and then finally sever is the emotional hold Miss Bowen had over him.

Speaker 27 I was thinking about that the other day as well, how I would feel if, you know, I was still quiet, I'd heard nothing and then I heard a documentary saying actually at Christ College, I think that would have a part of it breaking the spell.

Speaker 29 her spell is not being special.

Speaker 27 I think if I had fat if I was in that position and I heard this podcast,

Speaker 20 so I think I would come forward at that stage. It might take me a couple of months, but I think I would come forward.

Speaker 24 So I think if there are others, I think they will come forward.

Speaker 20 I do believe that.

Speaker 14 If you have any more information about this this story or if you just want to get in touch with us about your own experience, you can write to us at podcasts at tortoisemedia.com.

Speaker 14 In the past, Sally Ann Bowens denied that she had any kind of sexual contact with Gareth or any other boy.

Speaker 14 Lucky Boy is reported by me, Chloe Hajimathayo. The producer is Gary Marshall.
Additional production from Rebecca Moore. Sound design is by Hannah Varrell.
Original music by Tom Kinsella.

Speaker 14 Podcast artwork by Lola Williams. The voice actors are Caris Pentecost, Jasper Corbett, Matt Russell and Katie Gunning.

Speaker 14 The AI voice cloning was from Eleven Labs and the executive producer was Basha Cummings.

Speaker 14 Special thanks to Kavita Puri, Tom Wright, Zanthi Mallet, Peter Garsden, Keith Oddy and Alex Renton.

Speaker 14 If you or someone you know has experienced the issues covered in this episode, there are places you can reach out to.

Speaker 14 If you have any concerns about a child, then you can contact the NSPCC's helpline by calling 0808-800-5000.

Speaker 14 or emailing help at nspcc.org.uk or visiting their website. Children can contact Childline and talk to an impartial counsellor.
No concern is too big or small to discuss.

Speaker 14 Simply call 08001111 or visit their website for a one-to-one chat. For general concerns or talk, adults can contact the Samaritans on 116-123 or email joe at samaritans.org.

Speaker 14 That's jo at samaritans.org.

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