Lucky Boys | Lucky Boy Ep4
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What warning does this episode include?
tortoise. Just a warning before we start. This episode includes descriptions of sexual abuse and strong language. Last time on Lucky Boy.
One, at no point did any pupil, parent, colleague or senior manager ever confide in me, at the time or thereafter.
There's a closing of ranks, then and now.
I would have made an intervention and reported it.
What is Gareth's experience and how has it affected him?
A 14-year-old having sex with a 27-year-old teacher, that's going to have a certain effect on him.
But I think what it's done is fossilised him, emotionally.
So I would have been about 20. Yeah, I'd have been about 20, I'd say. And what happened was, because I was on the tube, I was minding my own business on the tube, going from Golders Green to Hendon.
At first, Gareth doesn't really notice when this pretty ordinary-looking man gets on at Golders Green tube station.
And he decided to come and sit next to me on the tube, opposite me.
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.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Obviously we, like, acknowledged each other. But he's sitting opposite me.
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.
How did Gareth's chance encounter on the tube impact his quest for truth?
You're not the only one. I remember those words, you're not the only one. And he got off the tube.
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. Mm-hm. Where was the hurt coming from? Was it that she'd betrayed you? Was it that you weren't the special one?
Right, there you go. Yeah, of course that would have been betrayal. What, after me? Was it before me? Was I like the little afterthought?
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. 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.
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.
You know, you've got to remember, when I first gave my interview to... The police, I actually thought, I fucking thought she was going to come out and tell the truth. Imagine that. Imagine that. Crazy shit. Thinking back at all the different stages and like, I mean, I shouldn't be like that.
In 2020, when Gareth gets that call telling him the authorities won't be pressing charges against Miss Bowen, he's gutted.
I actually offered the police, go to her and tell her, No criminal charges, but she has to talk to me. Off with it. And they said, oh, we wouldn't do that. Even if I wanted that, they will not agree to that. And I'd take that in a hat. I'd take that like that. It's like, why the fuck do I want to sit down and talk to her? What do I want to talk to her about? But you do. Oh, yeah. Desperately. Desperately. When I think about it now, I want to punch a wall. I'm angry that I don't get to talk to her.
What would you say to her?
Do you know?
I don't know.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What warning does this episode include?
0:05–0:35
2
What is Gareth's experience and how has it affected him?
0:35–2:00
3
How did Gareth's chance encounter on the tube impact his quest for truth?
2:00–8:42
4
What role does the Teaching Regulation Agency play in this case?
8:42–13:09
5
How does Sally-Ann Bowen defend herself in the hearing?
13:09–18:48
6
What new information surfaces during the tribunal?
18:48–31:01
7
What was the outcome of the Teaching Regulation Agency's decision?
31:01–35:35
8
How does Gareth react to the tribunal's findings?
35:35–53:09