A teacher accused of sexual relationships with two pupils told a jury she "wasn't going to dress like Margaret Thatcher". Sally-Anne Bowen, 65, is alleged to have indecently assaulted two boys at Christ's College in Finchley, north London, when they were around 14 to 15 years old.
Claims of 'sexually provocative' dressing
Harrow Crown Court heard the chemistry teacher wore "tight tops" and "mini skirts" while teaching at the all-boys school in the late 1980s. One complainant claimed he had sex with her "about 20 or 30 times" over several months.
Bowen, of Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, denied the accusations and claims she dressed in a "sexually provocative" way. During cross-examination on Monday, August 24, she said: "They were not very short, I would not have been allowed to get away with very short skirts."
Skirt length demonstration in court
She stepped out of the witness box to show jurors the general length of her skirts at the time. Placing her hands a few inches above her knees, she said: "They were shorter than I'm wearing now – they were not mini skirts."
Addressing the jurors, Bowen said she was in her mid-20s at the time of the alleged relationships. She added: "I wasn't going to dress like Margaret Thatcher." The teacher is alleged to have had sex with one teenager "about 20 or 30 times" but claims the allegations are "the workings of a fantasy". The pupil also visited her home and considered her his girlfriend at the time, it is claimed.
Cross-examination and allegations
Prosecutor Madeleine Wolfe asked Bowen if she could think of reasons why the complainant would pursue allegations more than 30 years later. Bowen replied: "I don't know why he is making these allegations. I have no idea what is going on at this point. I think he certainly had a crush on me at school."
Bowen said she was young and one of the only female teachers at the all-boys school, so she would be subject to inappropriate comments from pupils. She insisted she ignored the behaviours, saying: "It was not a huge problem – I would hear comments as I walked past and I ignored them, they didn't result in me being hassled or harassed."
The second complainant alleged he and Bowen kissed once in a cafe when he was "goaded" into it by other boys. He also claimed to have touched her breasts, but Bowen said she does not remember this boy and does not know who he is.
Denials and trial continues
Last week, a former pupil told jurors there was an occasion when a boy in Bowen's class was reading a "sex manual", believed to be the Kama Sutra. He said Bowen went through the book and discussed "the merits of different sexual positions" with students, which Bowen denied.
She said on Monday: "I have never in my teaching career seen boys looking at a pornographic magazine – the only magazine that I ever confiscated was a football magazine." When asked if she treated the boys as "friends" rather than pupils, she denied ever discussing inappropriate topics with them, adding: "I was a nice person and students spoke to me. I wanted to be liked and I make no apology for that – I was young, it was my first teaching job, of course I wanted to be liked."
Bowen denies seven counts of indecent assault against two boys. The trial continues.
