Chemistry teacher found guilty of indecent assault with two male pupils in 1980s

A chemistry teacher has been found guilty of having sexual relationships with two pupils at an all-boys school in the late 1980s.

Sally-Anne Bowen, who taught at Christ's College in Finchley, north London, indecently assaulted the teenage boys when they were aged around 14 to 15 and she was in her mid-20s.

A jury at Harrow Crown Court returned majority verdicts finding the 65-year-old guilty of seven counts of indecent assault on Thursday, after six hours and 29 minutes of deliberations.

Bowen did not appear to show emotion as the verdicts were read out.

One complainant told jurors he had sex with the teacher "about 20 or 30 times" over several months.

He said he would visit Bowen's home, considered her to be his girlfriend and had fallen in love.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he kept their relationship secret because he felt compelled to "protect the teacher". He said she had "drummed it" into him that he was not allowed to tell anyone.

"I never, ever spoke to anyone about it," he said. "I was always really aware, she drummed it into me."

He added: "Years she got to teach because I remained silent."

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The second complainant said he and Bowen kissed in a cafe when he was "goaded" into it by other boys.

Jurors were told Bowen would dress at school in a way that was "sexually provocative".

"She dressed and behaved more like my teenage female friends than the other teachers," former pupil Tobias Oliver - who did not know the two victims - previously told the court.

"The topics of conversation in class often strayed away from chemistry and became quite sexual."

Mr Oliver told the court Bowen had no boundaries and was "very flirtatious" in class and told them how she enjoyed giving oral sex to her boyfriend.

He said there was one occasion when a boy in Bowen's class was reading a "sex manual", which he believed to be the Kama Sutra, and Bowen went through the book and discussed "the merits of different sexual positions" with students.

He said it was not a "brief incident" and it "became the focus of the lesson".

Mr Oliver said on another occasion Bowen sat on a desk and caught the attention of the class before slowly opening her legs and revealing her underwear.

Richard Luker, who was head of science at the school in the late 1980s, told the court he remembered a complaint from the first alleged victim's mother, who said she was concerned the boy was planning to travel abroad with Bowen at the end of term.

During the trial Bowen claimed the allegations were "total fabrication".

She claimed she had a medical condition which had not been diagnosed in the late 1980s, which made sexual intercourse difficult and painful for her.

Bowen, of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, was granted bail until her sentence hearing on 20 November.

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