A 65-year-old former chemistry teacher has been found guilty of indecently assaulting two teenage students in the late 1980s. Sally-Anne Bowen was convicted at Harrow Crown Court of seven counts of indecent assault against two pupils who attended Christ’s College Finchley, a boys’ school in north London.
Abuse at North London school
Bowen first joined the school in 1986, when she was 25. During her trial last week, the court heard she had sex with one schoolboy '20 or 30 times' in the summer of 1988. Another boy was told to touch her intimately. She is alleged to have entered into sexual relationships with each of them in the late 1980s, when they were around 14 to 15.
Jurors were told 'there was a lot of banter and rather than shut down sexually provocative conversations, she encouraged the boys to speak and joke openly about sex'.
Victim came forward in 2014
Bowen was first reported to police in 2014 after one of her victims was encouraged by his then-wife to come forward – realising his son had reached the same age when he was abused. She was interviewed in 2015, when she painted her accuser as a 'nuisance' who was 'besotted' with her and followed her around.
The investigation was closed, but the victim appealed the decision and gave a second police interview in 2020. Details of his accusations were forwarded to the Teaching Regulation Authority, and she was thrown out of the profession.
Sentencing due in October
Bowen will be sentenced on October 1.
