A former chemistry teacher accused of indecently assaulting two pupils has told a jury she “wasn’t going to dress like Margaret Thatcher” in her mid-20s after being asked about wearing short skirts at school.
Sally-Anne Bowen, 65, is alleged to have indecently assaulted both teenage boys when they were aged around 14 to 15, her trial at Harrow Crown Court heard. Bowen taught chemistry at the all-boys Christ’s College in Finchley, north London, in the late 1980s.
Court hears of 'sexually provocative' claims
Complainants and a former pupil previously described Bowen as dressing in a way that was “sexually provocative” at school and behaving like she was “in a Sabrina Carpenter video”.
During her cross-examination on Monday, Bowen rejected the prosecution’s suggestion that she wore “tight tops” and “mini skirts” at school. “They were not very short, I would not have been allowed to get away with very short skirts,” she told jurors.
Asked to step out of the witness box to show jurors the general length of her skirts at the time, she placed her hands a few inches above her knees and said: “They were shorter than I’m wearing now – they were not mini skirts.” She reminded jurors that she was then aged in her mid-20s, adding as she stepped back into the witness box: “I wasn’t going to dress like Margaret Thatcher.”
Allegations of relationship with pupil
One complainant alleged he had sex with the teacher “about 20 or 30 times” over several months, that he would visit her at her home, considered her to be his girlfriend and had fallen in love with her. Bowen previously described his allegations as “total fabrication” and “the workings of a fantasy”, the court heard.
Prosecutor Madeleine Wolfe, cross-examining Bowen, asked the teacher if she could think of any reasons why the complainant would pursue these allegations more than 30 years later. She 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.”
Speaking of the allegations that Bowen had sex with the pupil at her home address, Ms Wolfe told the teacher: “It was a shared house, he (the boy) was right about that. He is right that your bedroom was upstairs, it was a small bed. He was right about your record player, and that was a record player that you treasured, something that you were very proud of, and that was a very specific memory that (the boy) had. How did he know about that record player if he hadn’t been in your bedroom?”
Bowen replied: “Anybody had a record player in the eighties, that’s how you listened to music.” Ms Wolfe continued: “It’s the prosecution’s case that quite a lot of the sexual activity took place in that small room. You invited (the boy) into your house and there was smoking, you drank tea, and then you kissed him in that bedroom, didn’t you?”
“That didn’t happen, he never came inside the house,” Bowen replied.
“Things progressed to masturbation, that then moved on to sexual intercourse,” Ms Wolfe said. Bowen answered: “That didn’t happen.”
Trial continues
The teacher previously told the court she had a medical condition which in the late 1980s had not been diagnosed, and which made sexual intercourse difficult and painful for her.
The second complainant alleged he and Bowen kissed once in a cafe when he was “goaded” into it by other boys, and remembers touching her breasts – but Bowen said she does not remember this boy and does not know who he is. The trial continues.
