Gareth spent years believing he was a lucky boy. He was the 14-year-old who got the attention of the attractive young science teacher. Now, decades later, he wants the truth to come out about the damage it’s caused him. But his story is not straight forward. You can find out more about Tortoise:Download the Tortoise app - for a listening experience curated by our journalistsSubscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free contentBecome a member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and moreIf you want to get in touch with us directly about a story, or tell us more about the stories you want to hear about contact [email protected] and produced by: Chloe Hadjimatheou and Gary Marshall Sound design: Hannah VarrallPodcast artwork: Lola Williams Executive producer: Basia Cummings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What warnings are given before the episode begins?
Just a heads up before we start, this episode contains strong language and references to sexual abuse. Can you just talk for a sec?
Hello, how are you? My name is Monty and I like golf.
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.
Again? 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, test in, 1-2...
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.
No, I mean, it wasn't, you know, like we were, you know, it was the mid-80s, late 80s. Spotty teenagers. Spots, greasy hair, you know, dodgy school shoes, you know, we just... You had a crimped fringe. I had a crimped fringe, yeah, but I was quite cool. You were quite cool. Do you know what I mean? Like, Arnott were sort of quite cool, but then... At least we thought we were.
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.
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Chapter 2: Who are the main people involved in Gareth's story?
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...
How this all started?
Chapter 3: What was the phone call that initiated Gareth's reflection?
So it was first lockdown, I'd say June or July, and I get a phone call from this unknown number. And it's this woman, this sort of Spanish, Latin-sounding woman, saying, my husband's asked me to call you.
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.
I was like, yeah. And then alarm bells started going off. Because I remember being at school at this time. And there being all these rumours. And we all kind of knew that something was going on. But we didn't know for sure.
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.
You either did well in your exams at Christ's College or they weren't interested. They just wrote you off? They wrote you off completely. I mean, they wrote me off completely and they wrote him off completely.
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.
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.
And then they talk about the real reason they were having this call. What happened between Gareth and this teacher at Christ's College.
And he was saying, look, if I got you to a police station, would you talk? I said, look, if I remembered anything... that wasn't an embellished memory, then absolutely. But I can't guarantee my memories for you. But I do know what happened to you was wrong.
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Chapter 4: How did Gareth's relationship with his teacher affect his life?
Yeah. But anyway, I think the bottom line is, there are two camps. There's the, yes, it was really wrong that it happened. And there's the, uh, hello? He got to basically shtup this gorgeous woman.
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.
I think what you'll find if you do interview people, ex-Christ College boys, ex-teachers, they'll be like, oh, 40 years ago, let it go, blah, blah, blah. But, you know, there are teachers out there who are probably in their late 60s, mid-70s, who you would be able to talk to. Whether or not they would want to, you know, I don't know, but I...
What about Gareth? I don't remember him, but Mark's sure I knew him back when we were kids.
Me, Ricky, Tom, Zach, that lot. You know, we'd be out on the streets. You've met him. You've met him.
I probably have. I was always with you guys.
He used to wear this quite sort of Tony Soprano leather jacket up to the elbows. Pull the sleeves up to the elbows. Hair greased, you know, greased down.
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?
Good, how are you? I'm OK, I'm OK.
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Chapter 5: Why did Gareth decide to come forward after so many years?
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.
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.
Well, yeah, because, I mean, like, you can speak to any of the boys about this as well, and I'm sure they'll back me up. I mean, everybody knew when Bowen hit Christ College.
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.
My mother was an English teacher. My father was an editor. So I guess... You would say that I came from a middle-class family. I was the youngest of four. I had two older sisters and a brother. My early years, yeah, they were very happy.
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.
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.
I think I was in second year, so I'd have been about 12, 13, I think.
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.
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Chapter 6: What was the school environment like in the 1980s?
What he means is they smell good.
And Bowen made a big thing out of this and started saying, oh, what do we smell of? How do we smell? What are you trying to say? And I sort of said, well, you know, you smell of perfume. And she said, I don't believe you. I don't believe that's what you meant. And then she engaged in this game where she said, I want you to tell me what you meant.
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.
I think you meant something like that we came out of the sea, like there's a creature out of the sea. At one point it did dawn on me, you know, at 13, even then, it did dawn on me what she was trying to get me to refer to.
But he's really embarrassed.
And when I eventually said fish, I think I said whale before or whatever, I was trying to be polite. And when I said it, she was, like, so delighted that her little joke had come to fruition.
The other member of staff, her friend, Miss MacIsaac, sitting right there.
And she just, like, mm, like, she cringed, like, mm, that's disgusting, like, I mean, what woman wouldn't?
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.
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Chapter 7: How did the inappropriate relationship begin?
Chapter 8: What is Gareth hoping to achieve by telling his story?
I think I was in second year, so I'd have been about 12, 13, I think.
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.
I was 13 when the conversation on the bus happened.
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.
Then they got on the bus, Bowen and MacIsaac, together as they most of the time were.
Miss MacIsaac's the other young female teacher at the school. She and Miss Bowen are really good friends.
She would have been beautiful rank number one and MacIsaac would have been beautiful rank number two. I mean, it's a boys' school and we were kids, so that was probably the way they thought about it.
So, on this particular day, he's sitting on the bus when the two teachers climb up the steps and get on board.
They sat at the front because the teachers would sit at the front of the bus and the kids would sit at the back.
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