Chloe Hadjimatheou
Appearances
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Just a warning before we start. This episode includes descriptions of sexual abuse and strong language. Last time on Lucky Boy.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Philippa's got short, stylish white hair. She looks far younger than her 82 years. When did you first find out that there was some kind of relationship with a teacher? Do you remember what the first thing was? I think it was my son. Her older son, Freddie. Gareth's the youngest of four kids. There's only two and a half years between Freddie and Gareth, but lots of distance.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
I've spent hours with him going over his story and he's frank about what he can and can't recall from the time. Even so, memory's a tricky thing, affected by all sorts of factors. Not least that what he remembers was seen through the eyes of a 14-year-old, a child whose lack of experience and judgement could have blurred context or nuance.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
They don't talk anymore, and Freddie didn't want to be involved in this podcast. One evening, back in the late spring of 1988, Philip has just come home from work when Freddie says he needs to talk to her. There are rumours going round the school, he tells her. I was worried sick. So she waits for Gareth to get home and asks where he's been.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
He says what he always says, that he's been with his mates in Hendon, but she's not having any of it. Was she shocked that these rumours were going around?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
So you stopped talking to your mum and you pulled away from her?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
That's why these rumours ring true for Philippa. Gareth's been acting distant, avoiding her and staying out after school. Until now, she's always put that down to teenage hormones.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Desmond Tinch, Gareth's maths teacher. Tall and thin, with a no-nonsense kind of attitude, but most boys think he's a pretty decent guy. He's been counselling Gareth each week in his office, trying to help this bright boy reach his potential. So he seems like the obvious person for Philippa to call. What would you have said to him, do you think?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
I can believe that staff might not have had time to bother with every little rumour circulating round the playground. But this is different. From what Gareth's former classmate Gavin remembers, this is all happening in plain sight. For anyone paying attention, it's obvious.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
And anyway, now a concerned parent is asking the school to investigate because she thinks there might be something to the rumours about her son and this teacher. You would imagine this would set off alarms, activating some kind of formal process, you know, internal procedures, that kind of thing.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
But Philippa says when she does finally manage to talk to Mr Tinch, he tells her he isn't concerned about Miss Bowen and Gareth. He says there's something else he wants to investigate. What did Mr Tinch tell you? He said, do you think he's on something? Mr Tinch advises Philippa to check whether Gareth's on drugs.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
He's just been told a member of staff may be having sex with a child and his response is to bat it back and ask if that child is doing something illegal. But Philippa's desperate to understand what's happening to her son, so she latches on to this. Maybe Mr Tinch is right. Her son's hostile behaviour, the lies, staying out late, these could all be signs he's on drugs.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
And she came straight away late on the Friday night. Dr Ferris has her medical bag with her and takes out a syringe.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
The medical note Dr Ferris took that night provides one of the only pieces of hard evidence I've seen from the time. It says, in a typical doctor's scrawl, school called mother thought Gareth might be having an affair with female teacher. Now, according to Philippa, it was her that called the school and the doctor got mixed up when she jotted it down in a hurry.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
And when he sits in front of me to tell me about Miss Bowen, his memories are almost all he can rely on. There's no ring binder full of hard evidence he can show me. I've tried to follow leads. There was a painter decorator Gareth says was working in Miss Bowen's house once and told him he heard them having sex.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Either way, the crucial thing is, the note suggests the school knew about the allegations. I've tried to put myself in Philippa's shoes. I'd do anything to find out the truth. I'd tell myself I'd have followed my son after school to see what he was doing. But Philippa was a single mum with four kids. She didn't have the luxury of time to spare.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
What about calling the police then? Philippa says back when she was breaking up with Gareth's dad and he was drinking lots, he'd hit her. When she ran to the police station to ask for help and told the officer at the front desk what happened... The police said, go home and be a good little wife. This is the late 80s, don't forget, before there are even laws against husbands raping their wives.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
It was still illegal to have sex with children under the age of 16, though. But Philippa has no faith in the police. And anyway, what would she tell them? She has no hard evidence and Gareth's denying everything. So she clings to the hope that maybe, just maybe, she's worrying about nothing. Maybe there's nothing more to it than flirting and playground rumours.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
What I'm trying to get my head around at this stage is what were senior staff at the school thinking? Sure, safeguarding back then wasn't what it is today. Child abuse was a fairly new idea. It had only become an official term a few years before and mainly referred to physical and psychological abuse and neglect.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
It wouldn't be until July that year, 1988, when the first guidance would be published for how schools, local authorities and other public institutions should be working together to protect children from abuse. So the school might not have had specific guidance to follow in cases like this. But we're talking about something clearly illegal here.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
A member of staff hired by the school to educate and protect students having sex with somebody under the age of consent, a child. And the school would have been obliged to report a crime. Is it possible that even with Philippa's phone calls, they didn't credit the rumours? No way, says Gavin, who was in Gareth's class at the time.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
I got as far as tracking down the now deceased landlord's daughter, but she had no idea who her dad might have hired. There are so many avenues like this that just lead to dead ends. Clues and evidence lost in the passage of time. There is one thing, though, that can help both of us.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
One of those Thursdays, Gareth's brother Freddie is waiting for Philippa, his mum, when she gets home from work again. This time, he tells her he's seen Gareth and Miss Bowen walking together miles from the school, during school hours. They'd gone for a drink in a pub near Gareth's house.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
So she gets him a glass of Coke. When they get up to leave, he does something on a 14-year-old's whim. He opens up his school bag and slips both their empty glasses inside. Mementos from a romantic afternoon, perhaps. He remembers thinking his mum might be quite pleased with a couple of new glasses.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
The pub's round the corner from his house, so he pops in to drop off his school bag and he leaves the glasses in the kitchen sink. Then he rushes back out to meet Miss Bowen again and they spend the rest of the afternoon in bed round at her place. So when he gets home later that evening, he has no idea what his mum knows. Did you see your brother?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Philip has gone to the kitchen sink and seen these glasses sitting in there. Glasses she knows aren't hers.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Witnesses from the school who could help me work out exactly what happened and why and help Gareth in his quest for justice. And he's adamant there are plenty of them. I'm calling you because... Given how widespread the rumours about Gareth and the chemistry teacher seem to be, I imagined this would be pretty straightforward. I could not have been more wrong.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Philip is feeling desperate, so the next morning she picks up the phone and tries Gareth's head of year again, Mr Tinch. This time, he has some big news for her.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
And these are the specific words Philippa remembers him using, that it doesn't matter now anyway because Miss Bowen's leaving at the end of term. And I'd been assured that she would never teach again by Mr Tinch. For Philippa, this seems to be some kind of recognition by the school.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
No member of staff was admitting anything, and she hadn't been sacked, but it felt like a sort of wink and a nod that the issue had been quietly resolved, for her and for the school. That evening, Philippa tells Gareth about the call with Mr Tinch.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
So hang on a minute, did he confirm it to her?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
It's a really big deal, this allegation, that the school was warned that a member of their staff was committing a serious crime, sex with a minor. And instead of referring it to the authorities and launching a proper independent investigation, they quietly just made it all go away.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Any kind of formal process would have entailed the risk that news of this relationship would travel out beyond the walls of the school. And that would not have been good for an institution with such a good reputation. At the beginning of this podcast, I said, this isn't that story. And for the most part, that's true. But it does fit into a broader pattern.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
We know now that in so many historical cases, in boarding schools, children's homes, the church and other establishments, people did cover up abuse and shield abusers in order to preserve reputations. I need to know what the teachers remember about all this. And at this point I'm trying very hard to reach them. But most are in their 70s and they don't have a big online presence.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
So I find myself getting out pen and paper and writing lots of old-fashioned letters and then waiting for a response. I'm not going to get to speak to any of them any time soon. Former pupils are a little easier to track down, but even then, I'm hitting one dead end after another. People just don't reply, and those who do say they'd rather not get involved.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
At some point, I move on from friends of friends to WhatsApp groups where old boys stay in touch. I'm starting to work my way through them, sending messages to one person after another, until it comes to the attention of the administrator.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
My friends forward me the voice memo he posts to the group.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Almost as soon as I start calling round, I hit a wall. And see if you might be able to help me a little bit.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
I even managed to get hold of two former pupils who are headmasters today. Neither of them want to be part of this podcast, not even anonymously. The problem is that Gareth was a misfit, an outsider, and he wasn't much liked by many of his classmates. As far as these guys are concerned, Gareth was lucky enough to end up with this teacher that they all fancied, and now he's complaining about it.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
So even if they do know something, they aren't super keen to corroborate his story. Of course, there would be no need for witnesses if the school had carried out a proper investigation into the allegations back then. But maybe they did investigate, informally.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Around the end of June or beginning of July 1988, Gareth meets Miss Bowen after school as usual, but on this particular day, he finds her white as a sheet and really shaken up.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Miss Bowen tells Gareth the meeting was with four men. The headmaster, but also Des Tinch, the yearhead who Gareth's mum's been trying to engage with. There's another male teacher there and a man she doesn't recognise. The four of them confront her about the rumours and when she tries to deny it, they say, don't bother because we know.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
She can finish the last few weeks of the summer term, they tell her, but after the summer holidays, her contract won't be renewed.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
At this point in the conversation, Miss Bowen and Gareth are on their usual route, walking from the bus stop to her house.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
This account about the meeting comes third-hand. It's what Gareth remembers Miss Bowen telling him. But an agreement does seem to have been reached in that room between the male teachers and Miss Bowen. You leave quietly... And that will be the end of the matter. If that meeting did happen as Miss Bowen described it, I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Lots of people respond like this. Weird, but I keep going down the list of people I know. And then friends of friends, until I find Gavin. These days, the work he does helps the police in their hunt for paedophiles and sex abusers. It's something he feels passionately about, and that's why he's agreed to talk to me.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Did they ever even consider reporting Miss Bowen to the authorities? Was she panicking at this point?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Just a few days later, Gareth finds himself alone in a room with one of those men who told Miss Bowen she had to go. It's his weekly counselling session with Mr Tinch. What would you talk about in the sessions with Tinch?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
So Gareth walks into that office with his heart pounding because he's sure Mr Tinch is going to ask him about it all. It's their final session of the year and at the end of it, Gareth says, Mr Tinch looks him in the eye and asks, is there anything else you want to tell me? Gareth says no. And that's the end of it. There were so many times responsible adults could have intervened.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
That day in his office, Mr Tinch had an opportunity. Even if Gareth had denied it, which, by the way, he admits he probably would have, Mr Tinch could have at very least let him know he would be there when he was ready to talk. But he didn't. Years later, Gareth will turn to Mr Tinch, hoping he'll act as a witness. But Des Tinch will say he never even heard a rumour about him and Miss Bowen.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
What's amazing to me is that that meeting, from what she said to you, sounds like they felt they had incontrovertible evidence.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
So Gareth and Miss Bowen stopped looking over their shoulders because it's obvious that despite the confrontation by senior staff, no-one's going to do a thing to stop them. No-one's protecting Gareth. Just before the end of term, Gareth gets really bold. He sneaks up the school tower to the science block. It's during break when he knows no one else is there.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
And he corners Miss Bowen in the chemistry lap and he kisses her. It's the only time he's ever dared be physical with her on school grounds. But at this point, he feels that nothing and no one's going to come between them.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
This is Chloe, Chloe Hatch. Chloe, hi. It's a bit of a blast from the past, I'll explain, but is this a good time to talk? This is a former Christ College boy who was a couple of years above Gareth at the school. He's someone I used to know fairly well. At one point he was going out with a good friend of mine, but I haven't spoken to him in years, so I'd almost forgotten all about him.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
When I call, he says he's happy for me to use what he says over the phone, as long as I don't use his name or his real voice. And what he does is try to set out for me what he and many other former Christ College boys think about all this.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
It's a strange way of putting it, an innocent time, when an adult, a teacher, could have sex with a child and it wasn't thought of as abuse. Honestly, it feels like the reverse to me, like innocence being stolen in a lesserware time. But that's how lots of pupils saw it back then and still see it today. And maybe it goes some way to explaining the attitude of the teachers to all this too.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
But a lot can happen in 30 years. Time weighs heavily on guilty consciences. I can't help but wonder whether one of the teachers might be ready to talk.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Just like for Gareth, the young, good-looking chemistry teacher made a lasting impression on him.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Sally-Anne Bowen denies having any kind of sexual relationship with Gareth. She also denies she was asked to leave Christ College School. Lucky Boys reported by me, Chloe Hajimefeu. The producers, Gary Marshall. Additional production from Rebecca Moore. Sound design is by Hannah Varrell. Original music by Tom Kinsella. Podcast artwork by Lola Williams.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
The voice actors in this episode were Robin Edwards, Andrew Butler and John Jones. And the executive producer is Basha Cummings. If you or someone you know has experienced the issues covered in this episode, there are places you can reach out to.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
If you have any concerns about a child, then you can contact the NSPCC's helpline by calling 0808 800 500 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. Simply call 0800 1111 or visit their website for a one-to-one chat.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
For general concerns or talk, adults can contact the Samaritans on 116 123 or email joe at samaritans.org. That's joe at samaritans.org.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
And crucially, he remembers her going off with one boy in particular.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
And Gavin wasn't the only one who'd noticed.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Rumours are one thing, but what Gavin's telling me went beyond that. The relationship between Gareth and his teacher was on show, in plain sight. So there must be other witnesses, and some of them might know more. If I could, I'd get all the teachers and pupils in one room and ask them who knew what and when.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Did they discuss the fact that it was illegal for an adult to have sex with a child under the age of consent? And did anyone try and stop it? It feels a bit like planning a school reunion for a bunch of people who don't really want to show up.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
As Gavin says, lots of former Christ College boys think this story's best left in the 80s, a different time when different attitudes prevailed, and who knows what really happened anyway. The thing is, back in 1988, when Miss Bowen first had sex with Gareth, it seems some people did know, and they knew it was wrong. And their failure to act to protect Gareth is still having consequences today.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
I'm Chloe Hadjimotheou, and from Tortoise, this is Lucky Boy. Episode two, The Relationship. Every morning when he's 14 years old, Gareth's mum wakes him up at the crack of dawn. He wolfs down his breakfast and rushes out the door to do a paper round before school. The extra pocket money comes in really useful. He mostly spends it on comics and sweets at the corner shop.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Not many of his mates have a job, so he's super proud of that paper round. That's the mornings. In the afternoons, Gareth's having sex with a 27-year-old woman. After the first time Miss Bowen lets Gareth into her room, it becomes a regular after-school activity.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
This is happening around the spring of 1988, when he's in his fourth year at school. Year 10, we call it these days, or ninth grade in the US. While other boys are at cadets club or practising with the cricket team, Miss Bowen and Gareth get the bus together outside Christ College at 3.30. And then they walk up from the stop to the house she shares with other young professionals.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
So I don't know whether it would surprise you to know that it's been incredibly hard to get people to talk to me for this series.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Did you tell her you loved her again?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
It's difficult to know what Miss Bowen was thinking in moments like this and whether she meant it when she told a 14-year-old boy she loved him. And of course she's on my list of witnesses too. I want to ask her directly. But first, I want to hear the whole story from Gareth's perspective. Was she always the one in control? Was she the one...
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
In May, it's Gareth's birthday. He remembers Miss Bowen being really pleased about it.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
As in, it doesn't sound as bad for a woman of almost 30 to be having sex with a 15-year-old. Even so, it's clear she has some awareness that this is still not acceptable, because she's careful. Just before 6pm every evening, she makes him leave her place.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
When Gareth's mum asks where he's been, he tells her he was with friends near his old house where he lived with his dad in Hendon. His best mate lives on an estate there. The friend's the only person Gareth's confided in. He hasn't told a single mate at Christ College School. And actually, it isn't that hard because Gareth's a misfit. He doesn't have a lot of friends at the school.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Perhaps that's one of the reasons Miss Bowen might have picked him out of the hundreds of boys there.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
But it's only a matter of time before they slip up.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
that wild kid from Christ's College who nicked the porno mags. Not the ideal person for them to slip up in front of. Gareth isn't in any of Miss Bowen's chemistry classes, so the two of them only really come face to face during the school day if they happen to pass each other in the corridor, which is exactly what happens on this particular occasion.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Right then, Ben appears out of nowhere.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
And even though they're always so careful not to give anything away, Gareth and Miss Bowen look up at each other for a second. A quick eye roll, a kind of, isn't Ben an idiot? He's got no idea about us. It's just a tiny intimate glance that passes between them.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
The way I found this guy, Gavin, was really just the result of a numbers game. I called so many former Christ College pupils that I was bound to find someone who'd talk to me in the end. And it's a good thing he picked up the phone, because I do need people to talk, to tell me what they remember about Miss Bowen. It's important to say that Gareth's account seems credible to me.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
He isn't sure who Ben tells, but over time, Gareth's convinced that rumours have spread to other pupils and even the teachers, although no-one actually confronts him about it.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Until this one day when someone breaks the silence. And the thing that really freaks him out is that it's a teacher and a good friend of Miss Bowen's at the school, Heather MacIsaac.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Another potential witness. She's one of the teachers who's invested time and effort in Gareth. She talks to him with respect and he likes her. So this day, the first time an adult actually acknowledges what he's been up to with a teacher, it's really etched on his memory.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
Miss MacIsaac turns the corner and walks up towards him. And as she approaches him, she lowers her voice.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
And she says, it's not right what you two are doing. I don't agree with it. Then she just walks away. Gareth's frozen. He doesn't say a word. He's terrified of anything that might risk what he's got going on with Miss Bowen. But when he stops to think about it later, he realises he's got nothing to worry about. After all, Miss MacIsaac and Miss Bowen are really good friends.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
She's not going to grass them up. Nearly 30 years later, when Gareth's looking for witnesses, Heather MacIsaac will say she has no memory of this. That as far as she's concerned, none of it ever happened. At this point, it's fair to assume that at least some of the teachers had suspicions about what was going on. As far as we know, they did nothing to put a stop to it.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
In fact, there's only one person who ever really tried to blow the whistle on that relationship between Gareth and Miss Bowen. And she had nothing to do with the school.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The relationship | Lucky Boy Ep2
This is Gareth's mum. I've changed all the names of Gareth's family members to protect his identity. And so I'm calling his mum Philippa. So, you know, you were quite close. Very. And then this thing happened. Yeah. And it changed the relationship. It did. Totally.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
So, on this particular day, he's sitting on the bus when the two teachers climb up the steps and get on board.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
So Gareth moves up and sits in the road just behind them.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
But he's too young to play the game. He just doesn't get where she's going with all this. So Miss Bowen gives him clues.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
The other member of staff, her friend, Miss MacIsaac, sitting right there.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Years later, when she's asked to corroborate this event, Heather MacIsaac will say she doesn't remember anything about what happened on the bus that day or the inappropriate things Gareth remembers Miss Bowen saying to him. At the time, Gareth was confused. He didn't know a teacher could be like that. She had crossed a boundary at that moment.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Memory is an elusive thing. When I look back on my years as a teenager, the images are hazy. Time's sort of taken the sharpness out of it all. But Gareth says specific moments are extremely vivid for him. Events that affected him so much that they're imprinted on his mind indelibly. Everything else, he admits, has faded away. So what he doesn't know is what happened around those key moments.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
the cafe instance. Yeah, we're coming to that. But that's a little over a year after that first interaction with Miss Bowen. So let's jump forward to 1988. Now Gareth's 14. He's in his fourth year at school. That's year 10 in the UK these days or ninth grade in the US. And he's doing pretty well.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Local places, pretty close to home, which for us back then was a little patch of North London, specifically Finchley. But I digress. Since those teenage days, I've ended up becoming an investigative journalist and Mark's an actor. But we're still close friends. I've asked Mark to come to the studio at Tortoise because of something that happened to him a while ago. So basically, tell me...
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
At some point that spring term, Miss Bowen starts taking the same bus as Gareth to and from school.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
And soon the conversation moves on to the bus. They're sitting next to each other, Gareth and Miss Bowen. Do you think you'd have been walking to Golders Green Station in the morning or waiting at the bus stop in the evening after school and thinking, I hope she's there?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
They talk about all sorts of stuff, like what they got up to on the weekend. He asks her about the other teachers at Christ College. Who out of the men does she fancy? And she tells him. He doesn't remember whether Miss Bowen asked him if he had a girlfriend. He didn't and hadn't ever. At this point, he's briefly kissed a girl once, outside her place on an estate in Hendon, but that's it.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
That's the extent of his experience with the opposite sex. Do you think at that time, having her give you that kind of level of attention, which was very kind of specific to you on the bus, you're slowly creating a friendship?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Right, so I'm going to need you guys to come a little bit closer. I can't remember how I thought when I was 14, at what point in my development I was. I know I felt very grown up. And although I try, it's really hard to imagine Gareth aged 14. All I see when I look at him is this large, angry man with a deep voice.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
I have two boys, but they're much younger. So I ask a friend of mine if I can talk to her 14-year-old son and his friends.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
We meet in a cafe round the corner from their school. It's 3.30 and they're still in their school uniforms. And right away, I'm surprised by how young they look. I'd pictured 14-year-olds as halfway to adulthood. But actually, these guys are still baby-faced, not quite through puberty. Can I ask you something else? Are you all shaving?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
They do go to the occasional party at friends' houses and there are girls there. But like, so is there ever anybody getting together at these parties?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
And what does getting together mean, like kissing and stuff?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
A really good weekend for them is usually one where they get to have a sleepover. And once I turned the recorder off, one of them admitted to me he still sometimes plays with Lego. It's probably one of the trickiest times in life when you're in such a hurry to grow up. But in reality, you have no experience of the world that qualifies you as being an adult.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
A time when a day of pretending to be grown up is so exhausting that all you really want to do is go home to your Legos.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Now Gareth's a bit older. He's in the upper school, which means he and the other boys are allowed out for lunch. But actually, roaming up and down the high street, lunch is the least of what they get up to. This particular break, Gareth's with a group of mates, including a boy called Ben.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
He's one of these kids who doesn't seem to have any boundaries. On this day, Gareth and a group of other boys follow Ben into the local newsagents just up the road from the school. They think they're in there to buy a can of Coke and some sweets, but Ben has other things on his mind.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
That's where the porno mags always are. You could be as subtle as you liked, but if you were buying one, there was no hiding it.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Brazen as hell. And somehow he walks out with these five mags without any trouble.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
The CAF was a little Italian deli. Gareth used to go in there with his mates, not to eat, but to hang out. His lunch money was already spent on a ten-pack of Benson and Hedges. Miss Bowen was often in there too. Did you clock her as soon as you got in? Yeah.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
So the boys all come in laughing because they've just pulled off this heist in the newsagents. And Ben's really excited about it. He's opening up the porno mags and waving the pictures around for everyone to see. And he's trying to get Miss Bowen's attention, sticking the mags under her nose and saying, what's this then, Miss? What's this? And it feels like it's getting all a bit out of hand.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
What Gareth does remember is that the action sort of dissipates and Ben and the other boys get bored and leave. Sir Gareth slides into the seat opposite Miss Bowen. The porno mag he grabbed off Ben is tucked away somewhere inside his blazer pocket or down the back of his trousers.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Gareth thinks she's going to confiscate it. But instead, she opens it up under the table so it's out of sight. And she starts flicking through the pages.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
And at that moment, what was going through your mind?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
She tells Mark he was in the same year as her husband, at Christ's College Finchley, a boys' comprehensive school that had a pretty good reputation. I was at the girls' school just up the road. This woman asks if Mark remembers her husband, Gareth. Actually, that's not his real name. I can't tell you that for reasons that will become clear pretty soon.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
But what it had done was cross a boundary with you. It was a new boundary that had been crossed.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
And then the curtains of his memory fall on this scene and it ends there. He doesn't remember how, but he knows he and Miss Bowen get back to school. And he knows, however hard it is to keep his mouth shut, he can't tell anyone what happened. If all this went down as Gareth remembers, that incident with the porno mag has completely tilted his relationship with Miss Bowen.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Now, she's not just an attractive teacher. She's a woman who's given him explicit permission to think of her in sexual terms. She's invited him to. I'm not an expert, but I imagine this is probably what grooming looks like. And Gareth, he's hooked. The next day when they meet up after school, he tells her he loves her.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
And now he can't bear saying goodbye on the street corner, so one day he just keeps walking with her towards her place. That's when he clocks the other boy.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Do you remember his name? No, I don't. It seems this Asian boy's been walking her home regularly. Gareth joins them. And this one afternoon, when all three of them get to Miss Bowen's house, instead of saying goodbye at the gate, she goes in, leaving her front door open. So Gareth wanders in, closing the door in the Asian boy's face. And Miss Bowen lets him in for tea and a cigarette.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
The living room's pretty bare and nondescript. No personal touches. Probably because it's a shared house full of young professionals where Miss Bowen's renting a room. None of the other tenants are in.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
The next day, when he walks her home again, they're alone. The Asian boy that was walking with them, Gareth never sees him again. And now it seems to be a given that he's going to come inside. But this time, halfway through their cup of tea on the sofa, Gareth stands up.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
It's a small box room. There's a cupboard and a cool-looking record player on a shelf. And they sit kind of awkwardly side by side, sipping tea.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
That first time, they don't go all the way. But when it eventually happens, he has no idea. She has to stop and explain to him that they're actually having sex.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
So can I just, 14-year-old Gareth, after the first time, you leave her house, close the front door behind you and you're walking home.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Lucky boy, he thinks. I'm a really lucky boy. Miss Bowen's clear right from the outset. You can't tell anyone. But she needn't have bothered. There's no way Gareth's going to risk it, because he knows what they're doing isn't above board. He knows if people find out, there's a good chance they're going to put a stop to it.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
The rumours were about what happened between this guy Gareth and a teacher at the school. His wife is calling Mark because Gareth needs witnesses and he remembers Mark because they were both misfits.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
In the past, Sally-Ann Bowen has denied the incident in the cafe with the porno mags ever took place. She's also denied that Gareth ever came into her house or that she had any kind of sexual contact with him. Lucky Boy is reported by me, Chloe Hajimotheu. The producer is Gary Marshall. Additional production from Rebecca Moore. Sound design is by Hannah Varrell. Original music by Tom Kinsella.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Podcast artwork by Lola Williams. And the executive producer is Basha Cummings. If you or someone you know has experienced the issues covered in this episode, there are places you can reach out to. If you have any concerns about a child, then you can contact the NSPCC's helpline by calling 0808 800 500 or emailing help at nspcc.org.uk or visiting their website.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Children can contact Childline and talk to an impartial counsellor. No concern is too big or small to discuss. Simply call 0800 1111 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. That's joe at samaritans.org.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
And because Gareth remembers Mark suffered at the school, just like he did, he thinks Mark might be more likely to help him out. Mark and Gareth end up having several long conversations, sometimes late into the night. Rewinding to the 1980s and playing out their school days. Who had a fight with who? The fact that caning was still allowed in their first few years.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Which teachers would use it and which would just throw books at you or clip you round the ear. About the hours after school spent sitting on buses smoking cigarettes... Or hanging around Golders Green station trying to look cool and get the attention of girls. Memories of that sweet time in the early years when they were still blank slates.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
And then they talk about the real reason they were having this call. What happened between Gareth and this teacher at Christ's College.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Thanks for listening to Lucky Boy. If you're enjoying this podcast, you can listen to all episodes today by subscribing to Tortoise Plus on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or by downloading the Tortoise app. And while you're waiting for next week's episode, you can listen to our previous investigations right here on Tortoise Investigates. Tortoise.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
The first time Mark tells me about all this, that this former classmate of his, Gareth, had called him out the blue to talk about how he'd been sexually abused by his teacher at the age of 14. I have to admit, I immediately jumped to what I thought was a pretty obvious conclusion, that the teacher carrying out the abuse had been a man. It's an easy assumption to make.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Most abusers tend to be male. And recently I've been hearing more and more of these cases about boys being abused in boarding schools and churches. But this is not that story. Because in this case, the abuser was a woman.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Just a heads up before we start, this episode contains strong language and references to sexual abuse. Can you just talk for a sec?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
So the sort of, the implication was... It was his fantasy and he got to fulfil his fantasy. Yeah. What's he complaining about?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
All Mark remembers from back then was rumours. But what I want to know is, were there people who saw stuff who can give me a better idea of what really happened? So I get him to ask round. He tells me there are WhatsApp groups where loads of old boys, now men, still stay in touch. And he's happy to connect me.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
What about Gareth? I don't remember him, but Mark's sure I knew him back when we were kids.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
I probably have. I was always with you guys.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Like I said, everyone thought they looked cool back then. So Mark asks Gareth whether he'll speak to me and... Hi, Chloe, how are you doing?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
The voice on the other end's a bit rougher than I expected, but it's also thoughtful and intelligent.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
I don't know why he said he's Monty. This is actually Mark. He's one of my oldest mates and he doesn't like golf.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Gareth tells me that for a long time he found it difficult to pin down the harm this relationship caused. He thought of himself as a lucky boy. But one day the relationship ended. The teacher just walked away. And when she did, his whole life fell apart. By the time he was 16, he was homeless, and by 23, he'd tried to kill himself several times.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Much later in life, he realised he needed to process what happened to him. As I listen, I can feel the anger sitting just under the surface.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Truth be told, he almost instantly regretted his decision. He still had lots of warm feelings towards her, still thought of her as his first real love. It wasn't really revenge he was after, more a general acknowledgement of the harm he'd suffered as a result. But then, one after another, the people he'd considered solid witnesses denied being aware of the relationship. And the teacher?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
She denied ever having any kind of sexual contact with him. Gareth knows what happened between him and his teacher. He tells me he's sure of it. Those events are seared into his memory. And the fact that no one wants to talk about it now, well, it's like the entire cast of his childhood all gaslighting him at the same time. So now he's gone from being hesitant to being on a crusade.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
He's always been the funny one in our group of friends. It was the same when we were kids growing up in the 80s. It's a bit embarrassing now, but back then, me and Mark were goths.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
The truth is a good starting point for me too. But also, why are people so reluctant to talk? And why was this teacher allowed to have sex with a child without ever facing any consequences? Could it have something to do with the fact that the abuser in this case was an attractive woman? I'm Chloe Hadjimotheou, and from Tortoise, this is Lucky Boy. Episode one, Gareth. It's 1986.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
We still get our music news from magazines like Smash Hits and Melody Maker. And every Thursday evening, we're glued to Top of the Pops on TV to see who's leading in the charts. The nightly comedy offering on the BBC is Benny Hill chasing big-breasted half-naked women around parks.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
If you arranged to meet someone and they didn't show up, you went back home again and you used your turn-dial landline to call their landline.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
The same kind of landline that Margaret Thatcher used to call into Radio 4's Today programme whenever she heard something that surprised her. IRA bombs seemed to be going off every other day, and most kids around the country were fixated by only one North London secondary school, Grange Hill on Kids TV.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
In which every issue under the sun seemed to be playing out all at the same time. Although the writer's imagination didn't stretch as far as an affair between a young boy and his female teacher. Back in the real North London, a new term's just started at Christ College and boys in dark blue uniforms are tumbling out of buses, flocking loudly into the school.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
The three-storey red brick building's more than 150 years old and it really stands out because of its huge tower, more like a turret on a castle really, with little arched windows spiralling up in line with a narrow staircase on the inside. The tower's where the science labs are.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
And this term, there's lots of commotion up there because the school has a new young chemistry teacher, Sally-Anne Bowen. This is her first teaching job, not long out of training. She's 27, with long blonde hair, and like loads of the boys, 13-year-old Gareth can't help staring at her.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Gareth's birthday is in May, so he's pretty young for his year, but he's a bright kid, athletic, with wavy brown hair.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
He's fiercely proud of his dad being a journalist. He teaches his son never to blindly accept what he's told. Question everything, he says. Of course, that doesn't always go down well with Gareth's teachers. Precocious and lippy is probably what they would have called him. But his dad's also an alcoholic and he can be violent.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Sometimes he beats Gareth with a belt and when he's drunk, he goes after his mum too, until she can't take it anymore and leaves.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Gareth ends up living with his mum. He misses his dad, but he's busy, hanging out with his mates. They like going into the fields just north of Finchley, looking for golf balls, which they sell back to the golfers and use the money for sweets or comics.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Gareth's not in any of Miss Bowen's chemistry classes and so his story with her doesn't really begin until about halfway through that year. There's a bus that takes pupils from one part of the school to another. Gareth's only in the third year. These days we call it year nine in the UK or eighth grade in the US.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
For our lot, it was all about going to gigs. Susie and the Banshees, The Cure, and some pretty dire stuff too, like Fields of the Nephilim. That still makes me cringe. It was easy for teenagers back then because tickets were affordable, only around a tenner. And in venues that seemed so edgy and happening, like the Town and Country Club and the Camden Palace, most of them years gone now.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Gareth | Lucky Boy Ep1
Miss MacIsaac's the other young female teacher at the school. She and Miss Bowen are really good friends.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Introducing...Lucky Boy
100%. That's when he gets in touch and asks me to investigate. And when I start to dig and get people to talk, it turns out Gareth isn't the only lucky boy.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Introducing...Lucky Boy
I'm Chloe Hajimothe and from Tortoise, this is Lucky Boy. A story about who gets to be a victim and a perpetrator. Sally-Ann Bowen denies having any kind of sexual relationship with Gareth. The first episode of Lucky Boy launches today, the 25th of February. Follow the feed to make sure you don't miss an episode.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Introducing...Lucky Boy
To binge listen to the entire series ad-free today, subscribe to Tortoise Plus on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or download the Tortoise app.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Introducing...Lucky Boy
It all began when a new chemistry teacher started at the school, a 27-year-old woman with long blonde hair.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Introducing...Lucky Boy
She absolutely stood out, got a lot of attention, very much sort of played to the crowd.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Introducing...Lucky Boy
Out of the hundreds of boys, she chose Gareth. And before long, she was sleeping with him.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Introducing...Lucky Boy
Gareth was a pretty ordinary 14-year-old. He liked comics, climbing trees and hanging out with his mates, that kind of stuff. But he also had a secret.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Introducing...Lucky Boy
And everyone, including Gareth, thought he was such a lucky boy.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Introducing...Lucky Boy
He was only 14 and he was a silly boy, you know? After years spent coming to terms with what happened to him, he doesn't feel so special anymore. I could have killed her. She's ruined his life. Now he wants justice. And he wants to know why no one put a stop to it. But there's a problem.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Introducing...Lucky Boy
All those teachers he sure knew about the relationship back then, now they say they don't know what he's talking about.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
By the time he's 16, Gareth's relationship with his mum has broken down completely. All the lies have poisoned things between them and she asks him to leave home. At this point, Gareth's in a really bad way.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
I've spoken to a lawyer. He and his firm have represented thousands of sexual abuse survivors in legal cases against all sorts of institutions. He's even worked with victims of Jimmy Savile. And he tells me the average age for his clients to come forward, particularly male clients, is between 35 and 50 years old.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
It often takes more than a quarter of a century before they're ready to face what happened to them. When his moment comes, Gareth's in his early 40s. Bang on average. He's spent decades holding his secret. He's never admitted it to his mum, though he has confided in a couple of girlfriends and then his wife.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
For years it's actually been a point of pride that his first relationship was with a much older teacher at school.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
But things shift. He meets and marries his current partner, someone who's been his rock over the years. And he adopts her two children when they're still quite young. Fatherhood is something he enjoys and is good at. And it's also something that changes his perceptions.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
There's a way I'm beginning to look at this story that separates it into two acts. There's Act 1, what's alleged to have happened in the late 1980s between Gareth and Miss Bowen, how it was handled by individual teachers and the school as an institution. That Christ College, it seems, had asked Sally Ann Bowen to quietly move on before the school and everyone left in it moved on too.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Die Versicherung, die Gareths Mutter gesagt hat, die sie in 1988 zur Schule gegeben hat, dass Sally Ann Bowen wieder lernen würde, war nicht wahr. Es hat Gareth eine Vierteljahre gedauert, um zu realisieren.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Es gibt kein einziges Event, das die Zahlen für ihn beibringt. Es ist mehr ein langsamer Ausdruck neuer Informationen, gesehen durch das schwingende Lens eines mehr erfahrenen, älteren Mannes. Aber der Tag kommt endlich, als Gareth bereit ist, was seine Mutter all diese Jahre lang gemacht hat. Er nimmt das Telefon an und ruft die Polizei an. This is when Gareth's story reaches its second act.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Did you think she might deny it or did you think she'd admit it?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
You thought she would admit it? Did you imagine what she would?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Gareth understands now that he's been badly harmed by what happened to him after Miss Bowen left. He knows the relationship knocked his life off course. But at the same time, he still clings to the idea that what he and Miss Bowen had was something special. So when he goes to the police, he hopes she might take responsibility for what happened back then. Perhaps put it down to a moment of madness.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
This is 2015 and by now Gareth's in his 40s. And after finally going to the police, he's not being believed. So now it's on him to prove he hasn't made the whole thing up. The police investigation begins consuming his empty days. He makes long lists of all the teachers he remembers. Each one, he's sure, can vouch for the fact that he had a thing with Miss Bowen.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
The police start calling round and speaking to dozens of teachers. Des Tinch, the head of year, who his mother spoke to. Heather MacIsaac, Miss Bowen's friend, who told him she didn't agree with the relationship. And lots of others. And each time they get hold of someone, they call Gareth to update him.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Keiner von ihnen ist bereit zu sagen, ich habe Gareth gesehen oder ich wusste, dass so etwas passiert ist. Es ist aber ein bisschen schwer, nicht wahr? Weil sie haben zu sagen, dass sie es gesehen haben und nichts gemacht haben.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
The police get hold of one teacher, William Roach, who tells them he remembers rumours going around the staff room about Miss Bowen and a student, but he can't remember the kid's name. And an English teacher, Mick Gray, says he remembers Miss Bowen as being very flirty and that there were lots of rumours going around the staff and pupils that there was something going on between her and Gareth.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
The fact that Gareth wasn't able to was left as his problem. Das ist der erste Akt. Und für diese Part of the story, I'm open to what some of the former pupils have been telling me. That it was a different era, with different ideas and moral standards.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Mr. Grey hatte eigentlich nichts selbst beobachtet, außer an einem Ort am Ende des Termins, als Gareth und Miss Bowen beide im gleichen Pub waren. By then, Gareth says, Ms Bowen had become so brazen about their relationship, that in a final act on her last day at the school, she took him with her to end-of-year staff drinks. The couple sat at their own table in full view of a whole gang of staff.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
But when the police tried to find witnesses, everyone they spoke to claimed not to have been there. Now I'm working my own way down that list of teachers. Es ist nicht einfach. Manche haben ihre Namen geändert, nachdem sie verheiratet sind. Andere haben keinen Online-Footprint, oder sie sind gestorben. Und viele von denen, die ich finde, haben keinen Interesse daran, mit mir zu engagieren.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
It's one thing for former pupils to say they don't want to be involved, but these are teachers, some of whom, like this guy, still work with children. I expected them to feel a certain responsibility to help with an investigation into potential child abuse that may have happened on their watch.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
No problem. All the best. Gareth did try to prepare me for it, but still, the uniformity of the response took me by surprise.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
I mean, I think what's outrageous about it is how many. Oh yeah, mad. One or two. Heather MacIsaac would be a good one if you could get her to talk, by the way.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Heather MacIsaac. The only teacher who Gareth says ever confronted him back then. These days she teaches in Scotland. I managed to trace her through a hockey club she belongs to. And she tells me what she told the police a few years before, that even though she and Sally Ann Bowen were such good friends, she had absolutely no knowledge of the rumours.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
And that if she had, she would have reported Miss Bowen immediately. The conversation in the corridor, when she apparently told Gareth she knew about the relationship, it didn't happen, she says. But when I tell her everything Gareth's been through since, she says she wants to apologise to him.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
That she's embarrassed she didn't protect him, because he was vulnerable and she could see that at the time. Even though she says she can't remember any of it, she does seem open to the idea of an interview. And when I tell Gareth he's excited, at least she's engaging. But the next day, Heather MacIsaac emails again.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Es ist schwierig für Gareth, zu bemerken, dass so viele Menschen seine Erinnerungen kontradikieren.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
The early 80s was a time before children's rights were properly fleshed out. And that meant that some very dark movements were able to get a foothold in the public conversation.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Es gibt keine Beweise dafür und es klingt ehrlich gesagt ein bisschen paranoid. Aber wir wissen jetzt, dass es hier einen historischen Präzeden gibt, dass Institutionen wie Schulen sexuellen Verbrechen verhindern, um einen Skandal zu vermeiden. Vor allem diejenigen, die fühlen, dass sie eine Reputation zu retten haben.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
I haven't read it. I have no idea what it says. I've been waiting for you. I feel like it's... I thought we should read it together. I'm working from home and I've just jumped on a call with my producer Gary because there's been a development. Phoebe from the office just sent me a WhatsApp photo of a large envelope that arrived in the post for me today.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
And so I said, just open it, I can't possibly wait. And she said, oh, it's very long. And I said, I just don't care, get to the name at the end. What's the name at the end? Because, you know, obviously I feel like I've sent out a hundred odd letters. The name is Mr. D. Tinch, Des Tinch, Gareth's Head of Year. I'd be happy to hear from anyone, but Mr. Tinch is near the top of my list.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
He's the teacher that Gareth's mum Philippa says she called in distress when she heard the rumours about Gareth and Miss Bowen. The same teacher who apparently told her the problem would be going away because Sally Ann Bowen was leaving the school. I've sent him a couple of letters and now he's replied with two long pages covered in flawless, swirly writing.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
And he set out his response in neat numbered paragraphs.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
He says Miss Bowen was an iconoclast, a rebel woman pushing boundaries in a male-dominated school.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Er sagt, er hat nie Gerüchte gehört. Der Headmaster damals, Brian Fletcher, der Sally Ann Bowen sagte, Gareth war einer der Männer, die sie über die Beziehung konfrontiert und dann ihr Kontrakt beendet hat. Er war ein gut respektierter und geliebter Führer der Schule, sagt er.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
I mean, that is a pretty robust response to what we have said.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
It's, you know, on the face of it, it feels... The letter has shaken me a bit. Could Gareth and the women in his family have got this all wrong somehow? So I go back to the only physical piece of evidence from the time. That note the family GP took after speaking with Gareth's mum, in which it's clear she spoke to the school about the affair with his teacher.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Ein guter Beispiel ist der Pädophile Information Exchange, oder PIE, wie es genannt wurde. Es war ein Kampagnengruppe, die versucht hat, das Alter des Vertrauens zu reduzieren bis vier Jahre alt. PIE hat die Newsnight-Konferenz auf der BBC erhalten, die argumentiert hat, dass Pädophile unfairly demonisiert wurden.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
I don't think it says specifically Des Tinch. Her memory is of Des Tinch. I'm pretty sure Gareth's gonna have a really strong reaction to Mr. Tinch's letter, but I brace myself and I send him a copy. A couple of days later, he comes into the studio armed with several A4 pages of notes. He spends hours clinically dissecting what he takes issue with, line by line, until eventually he needs a break.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Go have a fag first. Okay. Okay. It's only when he stands up to leave that he finally opens up.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Sit down for a sec, sit down. Gary, are you still recording? Just tell me about your mum, just very quickly.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Ja, du hast versucht, mich zu telefonieren, hast du nicht? Ja, ich habe. Vielen Dank, dass du mich zurückgebracht hast. Es gibt ein Geheimnis bei Investitionen, das die meisten Leute nicht aufhören, weil es nicht sehr glamourös ist. Right. I'm telling you this because I think it was typical of Miss Bowen. This is someone who was on the staff when this whole story with Miss Bowen was playing out.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
He's an interesting person, but I can tell you almost nothing about him because he's been very clear. He doesn't want to be recorded and he definitely does not want to be identified. I'm calling him George and these are my recollections of our conversation based on notes I took at the time. So not word for word, but pretty close. And he's given me permission to have them read by an actor.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
One guy told me that during class one day, Miss Bowen took out these Indian-style paintings in which a couple was posing in different sexual positions. It was the Karma Sutra. He assumed she was giving them some kind of sex education lesson. And, he says, she seemed to really enjoy how shocked the boys were. But this is the first time I'm hearing that she behaved that way with members of staff.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Maybe because I haven't managed to speak to many of them. So they're not responding to me and the few I've spoken to, I think they probably at very least knew the rumours and they're not even willing to admit that. I think it's pretty unlikely that they didn't know about the rumours.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Then George tells me something really interesting. That there was a group of female teachers from the English department who were trying to do something about the fact that a colleague of theirs seemed very interested in a 14-year-old boy.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Another teacher I spoke to told me that a colleague of hers did know what really went on back then, but that she and others deliberately kept it within a tight circle and withheld everything they knew from the police. I tried to find that teacher, but she died a few years ago, so I can't ask her about it. What I find fascinating is that these teachers were trying to intervene.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
But I can't help wondering if they were trying to help Gareth or Sally Ann Bowen. And why didn't they think to report it? Could it be that, although on one level they knew the relationship was problematic, they just didn't see what was going on between this attractive young woman and her willing pupil as abuse?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
So it seems there were members of staff who did know and have hidden it from the authorities. Gareth's right. Whether or not you want to call it a cover-up, teachers have put their own reputations and the schools before anything else. And holding back the truth has allowed Sally Ann Bowen to continue teaching for 35 years.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Three decades during which any one of the teachers who knew could have reported her. Instead, in 2020, six years after he first called the police to press charges, Gareth gets a call. It's the detective in charge of the investigation. He tells him that the Crown Prosecution Service has reached a final decision.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Without any witnesses who are prepared to talk, there just isn't enough evidence for it to go to a jury, so they're dropping the case. Und wo ist Sally Ann Bowen an diesem Punkt? Nun, sie ist Head of Science an einer Sekundarschule, nur 30 Minuten Fahrt von Christ College. Ich habe ihr CV gesehen. Sie hat Jahre lang von einer Schule nach der anderen geflogen, manchmal nur ein paar Monate.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
13 verschiedene Schulen insgesamt, bis sie in diese letzte Position gelandet ist. Und all diese Sekundarschulen? Vielfältige Möglichkeiten, das Verhalten zu erneuern. The problem was pushed on from Christ College, but had it really gone away? There are so many schools she's taught at though, none of which I have a connection to, so where to start? It turns out, I don't have to look that far.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Lucky Boy is reported by me, Chloe Hajimathau. The producer is Gary Marshall. Additional production from Rebecca Moore. Sound design is by Hannah Varrell. Original music by Tom Kinsella. Podcast artwork by Lola Williams. The voice actors are Steve King and James Shield. The executive producer is Basha Cummings.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
The idea that a paedophile rights activist would be given a platform like this today was just unthinkable. So in some ways, Gareth was a casualty of the era he was born into. Today, our attitudes towards sexual abuse, victims and perpetrators are very different. Or at least we think they are.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
If you or someone you know has experienced the issues covered in this episode, there are places you can reach out to. If you have any concerns about a child, then you can contact the NSPCC's helpline by calling 0808 800 5000 or emailing help at nspcc.org.uk or visiting their website. Children can contact childline at Das ist jo.samaritans.org.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
This is when we come to the second act, what's been happening in the last few years since Gareth started his journey towards justice. The question I'm asking now is, could it be that Gareth is still a casualty of that time? Because what he suspects is that most teachers didn't speak up back then and that they're still keeping the truth hidden today. Most teachers, but not everyone.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
I'm Chloe Hajimothei and from Tortoise, this is Lucky Boy. Episode 3, The School.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Emily is Gareth's older sister. Like Gareth, she's smart and observant, but she's also successful. She has a good life, a job she loves and she's a mum to great kids. Talking to her is a bit like catching a glimpse of what Gareth's life could have been. His mental health issues mean Gareth can't work.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
And so this investigation and his obsession with proving what really happened pretty much fills his days.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
But I've called Emily to ask her about something specific. The last few weeks of the relationship between her brother and Sally Ann Bowen. Just before it all fell apart. Emily wasn't living at home then. She didn't really get on with her mum, Philippa. So after she left to go to uni, she never went back.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
When that call comes, in the summer of 1988, Emily's in Manchester living with friends and she doesn't have a clue what's been going on with Gareth and his teacher. Were you shocked? Were you shocked when she told you?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Philippa sagt ihr, dass die Christ College School eine Aktion gemacht hat. Dass Frau Bowen gefragt wurde, um zu gehen und wieder zu lernen. Aber das Problem ist nicht weggegangen. Denn was sie versteht, ist, dass die langen, fehlenden Sommerabende viele freie Zeit für Gareth und Frau Bowen zu treffen und Sex zu haben. Also in einem Moment von Desperation nennt sie ihre ungewöhnliche Tochter Emily.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
There's no particular plan, just the idea that a bit of space away from London might be enough to break the pair up. So they send Gareth to stay with his sister in Manchester. When Emily collects her brother from the coach station, she tries probing him, but he won't admit anything.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
And then, only days into his stay, one of Emily's flatmates tells her, some strange lady's been calling on the phone for her brother. She knows it must be Miss Bowen.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
So that weekend, Emily waits for the phone to ring. And before her brother can get to it, she picks up.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
There are so many things I wish Emily had asked her. Like, why did she think it was okay to have sex with a child? And why was she still contacting him, even after it seemed to have cost her her job? But in that moment, Emily's too angry to think rationally. She says her piece and then hangs up without waiting for a response.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Aber dann wirkt sie, als wäre sie ein normales Paar, nimmt ihn in Publikum und ringt ihn öffentlich für Gespräche, wenn sie apart sind. In any case, the Manchester Plan hasn't worked. Gareth packs his bag and heads back to London, whereas Mum Philippa tries one last tactic.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Das war es. Sie hat es vielleicht bedroht, in die Polizei zu gehen. Aber tatsächlich, mit Gareth und seinem Lehrer, die es alles negieren, fühlt Philippa nicht, dass sie genug Beweise hat. Aber es ist möglich, dass nur die Bedrohung einen Effekt hat. Denn an einem Punkt, nicht lange danach, entscheidet Frau Bowen, die Beziehung zu beenden. How did she tell you?
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The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
So she didn't say we have to stop because this is wrong or the school's found out?
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The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Sie haben Sex zum letzten Mal. Und dann schließt Frau Bowen die Tür auf ihre 15-jährige Freundin. Wie fühlst du dich? Warst du enttäuscht?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Das ist, wenn er wirklich anfängt, sich zu entlasten. Weil er vielleicht physisch bereit ist, Sex zu haben, aber er ist definitiv nicht bereit, sich mit dem emotionalen Verlust zu beschäftigen. Das nächste Mal, wenn er Frau Bowen sehen wird, wird es 35 Jahre später sein, als er 50 Jahre alt ist und sie in ihren 60er Jahren ist. Aber dieses Mal werden sie nicht allein sein.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Just days after Miss Bowen tells him she's going away, Gareth's back at school. A new term started at Christ College. This thing that he had that was so special and all-consuming, it's over. He's angry and hurt. And to make matters worse, Miss Bowen may be gone, but the rumours are still there.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
I heard about this one fight that happened outside school.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
By this time, we're talking on the phone almost every day. What it took me a while to realise is that Gareth records every single call he makes. He's pretty paranoid and so he wants a meticulous record of what everyone said to him. I don't know if he's always been like that, but I suspect it's the result of all the gaslighting he feels he's been through.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
When he eventually confesses to me that he's been recording all our calls, he thinks I'll be upset. But I'm making a podcast, so I'm actually pretty delighted. And I make him send me all the files. This particular day, I've called him to ask about that awful fight.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
I've got in my notes that he spoke to you about Bowen.
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The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Gareth ist out of control. Still, he says the school never tries to find out what's going on with him. None of the teachers ever mention Miss Bowen to him again. Just before Christmas, the school calls his parents in to say if they don't remove Gareth voluntarily, then the school will expel him. They quietly got rid of Miss Bowen. Now they've quietly got rid of her alleged victim too.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Der Gareth, den ich in den letzten Jahren kennengelernt habe, ist ein sehr bemerkenswert und intelligenter Mann. Aber er ist auch jemand mit Angst und Paranoia. Ich kann das sehen. Aber was ich mich nicht zuerst auf den Finger legen konnte, war, wie genau seine Beziehung zu einer älteren Frau die Probleme, die er heute hat, geleitet hat.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
The school | Lucky Boy Ep3
Miss Bowen normalised her desires before Gareth could even begin to explore and understand his own. And he says some of her desires were quite kinky. But Gareth wouldn't have known that. He had nothing to compare it to. So then, when it came to girls his own age, his expectations would often be frightening for them.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. She also seems to suddenly remember why witnesses would have seen them together at the pub and in edgeware. And Sally-Anne Bowen starts sounding flustered.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
Gareth and Miss Bowen are only ever meant to answer the questions put to them. 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. Suddenly, it's just him and Sally-Anne again.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
Staring right at him, Gareth says she doesn't flinch. It's impossible to tell what she's thinking. But Gareth can't stop.
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In December 2023, the panel retires to consider the evidence. 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. When they're ready, they call all the participants for a final video call to announce their findings. Gareth's testimony is consistent and convincing, they say.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. The only allegation they're not convinced of is that she bought him alcohol in a pub.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
Gareth sat on that Northern Line train, glued to his seat in shock. Just tell me, when he said that to you, you weren't, you're not the only one.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
The Teaching Regulation Agency bans Miss Bowen from the profession indefinitely. It's a really big deal. And what's striking about it is how categorical they are in their finding. Especially when you consider that almost all the panel had to go on was two competing accounts. He said, she said. Just like me, they found Gareth's account believable.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
The detail, the consistency in his story and the fact that he doesn't always put himself in a favourable light. It's a huge vindication for Gareth after so many years of being doubted. All those teachers who said they didn't know what went on back then or that Sally-Anne Bowen wouldn't have behaved that way. Well, it's made their positions a lot more difficult.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
Where was the hurt coming from? Was it that she'd betrayed you? Was it that you weren't the special one?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. 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. Lots of guys in his year were pretty sure Gareth was the victim because the rumours were so widespread at the time.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. 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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. 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. And the guy on the tube, he could have been referring to any one of them. But one guy in particular kept coming up.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. 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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. At the time, he would have been over 16, so over the age of consent. 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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
But that law didn't exist back then. 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. But he seems to be confirming that he was another boy at the school who was having sex with Miss Bowen.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. 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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. And often, years later, there's a realisation 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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. Where I've ended up is somewhere far darker and harder to report. 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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. 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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. Had the school or the authorities at the time taken seriously what was happening with Gareth, happening to Gareth, our view on Sally Ann Bowen would be so much clearer.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. 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. After that, he never saw that kid again.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
So what I need you to do is to sit down and think about any identifying features, anything that you can remember about him, just put it into words.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. 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. And then he drops a bombshell.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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? 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.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
He says he was also involved sexually with Sally Ann Bowen. But he's not sure he wants to talk about it.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
I know that it's difficult for me to say to you, don't get caught up emotionally until we've confirmed it, because there's no point in saying that, and I can imagine you've already gone there in your head.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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 round to mine for lunch. Shall we have something to eat?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. I don't remember this, but it turns out I've met Sanjay before. He came to a house party I threw when I was 17. Back then, we were all goths.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. Sanjay remembers him as a bit arrogant, a bit of a bully. And although there are common threads, Sanjay's experience is very different from Gareth's. So when did you sort of have any interaction with her? When did you start having any interaction with her?
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
The CAF, the same one where Gareth says he had his first mind-blowing experience over a porno mag with Miss Bowen.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
For now, yeah, we'll cut this bit out. 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. There was also a third boy...
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
Sanjay says that he, Gareth and the other two would meet up regularly at the cafe with Miss Bowen. The incredible thing is, Gareth has no memory whatsoever of sitting with Sanjay in the cafe. But Sanjay remembers him being there, at least for some of the time. And what did you talk about when you would all hang out there?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
But if the school's actions enabled Miss Bowen to continue abusing, well, that's a bigger story altogether. 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? I'm Chloe Hajimotho, and from Tortoise, this is Lucky Boy. Episode 4, The Lucky Boys.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
He says that after a while, those lunch break chats with Miss Bowen in the cafe change in tone. 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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. 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. And then what happened?
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
When you say kiss, are we talking about a peck on the lips or are we talking about a snog?
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
Where does that mean? Breasts between the legs?
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
And I'm trying to understand how they would say to you, go on, touch her, and then you would fondle her breasts.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. This guy didn't want to engage with me and I'm not going to name him here. To be clear, Sanjay says Miss Bowen's allowing them to touch her on multiple occasions. And this isn't in some secret location.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
It's all happening at the cafe very near the upper school building. Were there other people around?
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. 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.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. It's a shared experience between a group of boys. What he does have that feels more special is what happens after school.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
Miss Bowen lets Sanjay walk her home and when they get to her place, he says she lets him kiss her goodbye. Then, one afternoon, she tells him she's having a fireworks party in a couple of days. Would he like to come round? He thinks it might just be him she's inviting.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
When the evening comes, he changes his mind and he stands her up.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
For ages afterwards, he feels he's chickened out of something that could have been important for him. 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. That if he'd gone to her house that night, he could have ended up somewhere like Gareth.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
After that missed fireworks party, he stops walking her home. And the meetings in the cafe, they stop soon after that too.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. 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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. Our brains can't possibly retain everything that happens. Our memory filters out things that don't feel that significant to us.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. A couple of days later, when he's had a chance to process it all, Gareth calls me back.
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If you're going to make something up, you don't put it in a cafe with loads of witnesses. You make something up when you're alone with somebody.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
Yeah, and the thing is... And it's too fucking weird as well, this idea that he was touching her up in front of all these other people.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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, that Miss Bowen engaged in sexual activity with them. 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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
The final email I sent her sets out in detail all the allegations I've uncovered over the last year. I only know she's seen it because her partner sends me a very angry email. But Sally-Ann Bowen never replies. And what about the school?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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 Byrne from teaching and had found Gareth's allegations to be credible. Still, I was hoping the current headteacher might be willing to hear me out about everything I uncovered.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
The three cases, Gareth, Sanjay and the cricketer, in which one of their staff had allegedly engaged in sexual activity with pupils, as well as all the witnesses who claimed to have seen and heard Sally-Ann Bowen's inappropriate behaviour with students. In other schools where historical sex abuse has been uncovered, victims have received acknowledgement and apologies.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
But back then, the institution failed those pupils, even if today it's different and safeguarding is taken more seriously. I tried numerous times to get in touch with the current administration at Christ College. 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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. They also have something else in common. 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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
I found at least a dozen cases reported in the UK last year alone, the most notorious being that of Rebecca Joines, 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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. In a victim statement read out after Rebecca Joines was sentenced, the boy said he initially struggled to come to terms with his abuse and was in complete denial.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. 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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
The way these stories are reported is very different when the perpetrator's a man. He's a sicko, a predator. But if the offender's a woman, she's sex-mad and sex-addicted, followed by long descriptions about how attractive she is. 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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
In 2020, when Gareth gets that call telling him the authorities won't be pressing charges against Miss Bowen, he's gutted.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. What's been harder and taken longer for him to recognise and then finally sever is the emotional hold Miss Bowen had over him.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
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If you have any more information about 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 tortoismedia.com. In the past, Sally-Ann Bowens denied that she had any kind of sexual contact with Gareth or any other boy. Lucky Boy is reported by me, Chloe Hajimothe. The producer is Gary Marshall.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
Additional production from Rebecca Moore. Sound design is by Hannah Varrell. Original music by Tom Kinsella. Podcast artwork by Lola Williams. The voice actors are Caris Pentecost, Jasper Corbett, Matt Russell and Katie Gunning. The AI voice cloning was from Eleven Labs and the executive producer was Basha Cummings.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
Special thanks to Kavita Puri, Tom Wright, Xanthi Mallett, Peter Garsden, Keith Oddie and Alex Renton. If you or someone you know has experienced the issues covered in this episode, there are places you can reach out to. If you have any concerns about a child, then you can contact the NSPCC's helpline by calling 0808 800 500 or emailing help at nspcc.org.uk or visiting their website.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
Children can contact Childline and talk to an impartial counsellor. No concern is too big or small to discuss. Simply call 0800 1111 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. That's joe at samaritans.org.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. And as far as he's concerned, the police dropping the case, it isn't the end of the story.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
That photo Gareth's talking about was on a school website because after she left Christ's College back in 1988, Miss Bowen carried on teaching, without consequence, 14 more schools in total. It's the lack of accountability that makes Gareth so angry. So in 2022, Gareth goes to the Teaching Regulation Agency, the TRA. It's the bit of the Ministry of Education that oversees the profession.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
They have real power to intervene if someone makes a serious allegation against the teacher, even if it's historic.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
The TRA hearing is very court-like, although there are a couple of differences. 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. That means the allegations can be considered proven on the balance of probabilities. That's a lower standard than beyond reasonable doubt.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
In Gareth's case, the whole thing took place online via video link and it went on for months.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
tortoise. Just a warning before we start. This episode includes descriptions of sexual abuse and strong language. Last time on Lucky Boy.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
What you're listening to is a recreation based on a transcript of the hearing. The entire thing runs close to 200 pages. So we combed through it and these are the sections we think are the most revealing of how the case played out.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. Now they're both adults, he a man of 50 and she in her 60s, just a few years short of retirement. 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?
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
His entire account of what went on between them was put to Miss Bowen by barristers who cross-examined her over several days.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
I always thought it was pretty unlikely that I'd get the chance to speak to Sally-Ann Bowen. I had hoped. I wrote her a letter and emails. But the TRA hearing means that, even if she doesn't want to talk to me, we can hear from Miss Bowen herself. This isn't her real voice, but these are her real words.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
As she's being questioned by her own lawyer, Gareth's watching it all on his laptop screen at home. It's the same woman he remembers. Older now, but still the same long blonde hair and the same mannerisms. He's nervous as hell, but he's also dying to know what she's going to say.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
She comes across as well-spoken and articulate. And according to Gareth, she sounds much younger than she actually is. 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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
At first, Gareth doesn't really notice when this pretty ordinary-looking man gets on at Golders Green tube station.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
Miss Bowen tells him that, yes, she did teach at Christ's College School in the late 1980s and she remembers Gareth quite well.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
Yeah. She says she remembers that Gareth had a crush on her, but she says the feeling was not reciprocated.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
Before long, the tribunal arrives at the questions everyone's been waiting for.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
This guy was in Gareth's year 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. 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.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
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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. The incident in the cafe with the porno mag, taking him to the pub and allowing him to come into her house.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
At this point in her evidence, Miss Bowen seems very sure of herself. Gareth has to sit in silence while she's talking, but he's seething.
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Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
We've used AI to recreate Gareth's part of the transcript.
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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. In contrast, Miss Bowen's stoic and composed. But then something happens.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. Like the fact that she enjoyed a lot of the attention she got from pupils at the school.
Lucky Boy | Tortoise Investigates
Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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. And then he delivers a line that's stuck in Gareth's head.
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And then the lawyer for the TRA turns to what seem to be inconsistencies in her testimony.