Chloe hears from a former teacher who seems to support what Gareth believes - that there was a cover-up. And it’s still going on today.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 MarshallSound design: Hannah VarrallPodcast artwork: Lola WilliamsExecutive producer: Basia Cummings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What is the context of Gareth's story and the alleged cover-up?
A child is able to recognize a pleasurable experience. He is able to recognize a pleasing emotional experience. He is able to express consent.
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.
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.
Because children are one part of the whole society.
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.
Nor is a pedophile. Pedophiles do not exploit children. Pedophiles are using the child's sexuality. No, pedophiles do not use a child's sexuality. Pedophiles develop a mutual sexuality with the child. It's an entirely reciprocal relationship.
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.
When I found this interview and realised it was on the TV just a few years before Gareth's relationship with Miss Bowen, I was shocked. It made me realise how far our boundaries have shifted since the 1980s.
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.
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Chapter 2: How did the school handle the allegations against Miss Bowen?
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.
He would have acted if it had involved one of my year group. He would have questioned me and asked me to investigate further. He didn't. With respect, I do not wish to be contacted again. Yours sincerely, Dee Tinch.
I mean, that is a pretty robust response to what we have said.
Yeah.
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.
In the document that she has from the time, it says she spoke to the school, not specifically.
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.
Go have a fag first. Okay. Okay. It's only when he stands up to leave that he finally opens up.
I was so upset. I know you were. I sent it to my mum and my sister and said, fucking like, what do you think?
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