Former chemistry teacher Sally-Anne Bowen is on trial accused of indecently assaulting two boys aged 14 to 15 in the late 1980s, with prosecutors claiming she compared herself to a porn model
A chemistry teacher sexually abused a “besotted” schoolboy after comparing herself to a model in a porn magazine, a court heard.
Sally-Anne Bowen, 64, is accused of flirting with the teenager at the north London comprehensive boy’s school, before having sex with him “20 to 30 times” in the late 1980s.
The teacher – then aged 25 – also allowed another boy to touch her breasts and kiss her during lunch at a cafe near the school between 1986 and 1988, jurors at Harrow Crown Court heard.
Bowen, of Hemel Hempstead, Herts, is charged with six counts of indecent assault against the first boy, and two counts against the second – both of whom were aged 14 to 15.
Prosecutor Madeleine Wolfe said: “It concerns the behaviour of Ms Sally-Anne Bowen who was, back in the 1980s, a female teacher. And it’s about her behaviour to two pupils at the school she taught at in north London.
“The prosecution case is that when Ms Bowen worked at the school, that she engaged in flirtatious conduct towards these two boys and she encouraged and engaged in sexual relationships with them both and they were 14 to 15-years-old. The sexual abuse was notably worse to the first pupil who she engaged in acts of sexual intercourse.
“With the second pupil the abuse was limited to inappropriate kissing. The prosecution do not suggest Ms Bowen forced herself on either boy.
“Viewed superficially, these boys may have appeared willing to engage in flirtatious and sexual activity. But the prosecution remind you she was a teacher in a position of trust and authority.
“By flirting with them and engaging in sexual activity with them she exploited her position for her own sexual gratification. As these boys were exploited in that way, any apparent agreement on their part was not genuine consent to the sexual activity.
“She denied any form of sexual activity, whether that’s kissing or sexual intercourse with either.”
Bowen joined the school in her first job as a chemistry teacher and she spoke to the first boy even though he was not in her class, the court heard.
According to the prosecutor, the boy and Bowen kept in touch outside of school, as he felt she had “picked him out of all the other pupils”. Wolfe further claimed the boy was made to feel “special” as Bowen and him spent a consider amount of time together.
“As far as he was concerned, their relationship went to the point he thought she was his girlfriend,” the prosecutor said. She added: “She encouraged the boys to speak and joke openly about sex.”
The boy remembered a specific lunchtime when he and some friends were flicking through a porn magazine and Bowen took it off them, the court heard. He expected her to confiscate it.
But Ms Wolfe said: ‘In fact, what Ms Bowen did was open the pages and pointed to an image of a naked woman and said that woman’s “p***y” was similar to her own.”
This led to the boy taking the bus home with her to Golders Green where they kissed in her flat, jurors heard.
The court heard the alleged relationship with the boy then escalated to sexual acts and intercourse, with the boy saying he had never had sex before.
Jurors heard the first complainant told police he repeatedly visited Bowen during the summer of 1988, alleging they had sex more than 20 to 30 times, that he was never allowed to stay overnight, and that he felt “abandoned and confused” when she later said she was leaving the UK.
The court was told his mother became suspicious, challenged a woman calling the family home, and later learned Bowen had left the school, while the complainant only reported the alleged abuse to police in 2014 after disclosing it to his partner.
The second former pupil came forward after reading about a 2022 Teaching Regulation Authority hearing, alleging inappropriate lunches, pornography-related discussions and repeated kissing.
Bowen told police she could not remember the second complainant, denied kissing him, and said she always dressed professionally. She also claimed to have a medical condition that made it “extremely painful” and “impossible” to have sex during that period.
A witness alleged Bowen was flirtatious with pupils, used explicit sexual language, and told him they had to avoid being seen together.
He described what he claimed were repeated sexual encounters, told the court he was a “willing participant” and that it felt like a “love affair” at the time, but said it later left him confused and affected his relationships with girls his own age.
He claimed she later told him she was leaving to go to a kibbutz in Israel and that he felt abandoned, and also alleged staff at the school knew but never spoke to him about it. He said he denied the relationship when his family found out, and that after Bowen left his mother “didn’t want to know” him.
Bowen denies eight counts of indecent assault. The trial continues.
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.