A former London Catholic school teacher is accused of sexually abusing two teenage boys decades ago, including claims she dressed inappropriately and acted like she was “in a Sabrina Carpenter video.”
Sally-Anne Bowen, 65, was in her mid-20s when she taught chemistry at Christ’s College in Finchley, an all-boys school. Nearly 40 years later, two men are alleging Bowen sexually abused them when they were students there at around the ages of 14 and 15, the New York Post reported.
One of the accusers alleged he had sex with Bowen “about 20 or 30 times” over the course of several months, including at her residence. He said he considered her his girlfriend at the time and believe he was in love with her, according to court testimony from Monday.
Bowen called the allegations the “workings of a fantasy” and a “total fabrication,” according to a report from The Telegraph.
Prosecutor Madeline Wolfe asked Bowen during cross-examination why one of the accusers would come forward several decades after the alleged abuse occurred.
“I don’t know why he is making these allegations,” Bowed replied. “I have no idea what is going on at this point.”
“I think he certainly had a crush on me at school,” she continued.
Bowen said she was often the subject of inappropriate comments from students at school because she was one of the only young female teachers at the time.
“It was not a huge problem — I would hear comments as I walked past and I ignored them, they didn’t result in me being hassled or harassed,” she said.
A second accuser alleges other classmates “goaded” him into kissing Bowen in a cafe, according to the report. He also alleged touching her breasts.
Bowen said she has no idea who the second accuser is.
Bowen was also questioned during her cross-examination about the way she dressed while she was a teacher at the school, with the prosecutors accusing her of wearing “tight tops” and “miniskirts.”
Bowen rejected that claim, noting that she “would not have [been] allowed to get away with very short skirts.”
Bowen was asked to stand up and demonstrate the length of skirt she would wear when she was a teacher decades ago, and she place her hand a few inches above her knee, according to the report. She said the skirts were “shorter that what I’m wearing now,” but were not miniskirts. She reminded jurors she was in her 20s at the time.
“I wasn’t going to dress like Margaret Thatcher,” she remarked.
A former student testified against Bowen, alleging there was an incident in her classroom where another student was reading a “sex manual,” potentially the Kama Sutra. The former student claimed she thumbed through the material while praising “the merits of different sexual positions” to the other pupils.
Bowen denies such an incident ever occurred.
“I have never in my teaching career seen boys looking at a pornographic magazine — the only magazine that I ever confiscated was a football magazine,” she said.
One of the accusers alleged Bowen acted like she was “in a Sabrina Carpenter video,” referencing Carpenter’s controversial “Feather” video filmed in a New York Roman Catholic church.
Bowen was asked whether she thinks she acted unprofessionally and treated students more like “friends.” Bowen replied that she was “a nice person and students talked to me.”
“I wanted to be liked and I make no apology for that. I was young, it was my first teaching job, of course I wanted to be liked,” she said.
Bowen is facing seven counts of indecent assault against two former students, according to the report. She denies all charges.