A teacher accused of abusing two of her students in the 1980s told police one of them was ‘besotted’ with her and tried to get into her home, a court heard.

Sally-Anne Bowen, 65, is accused of abusing the boys, aged around 14 to 15, when she was in her mid-20s and teaching chemistry at Christ’s College school in Finchley, north London.

One of the complainants alleges he and the woman had sex ‘about 20 or 30 times’ at her home over a period of several months. He also claimed he considered her his girlfriend and had fallen in love with her.

Bowen denies the allegations and, in her first police interview dated January 2015, described the first accuser as a ‘nuisance’, adding that he was ‘besotted’ with her.

Jurors at Harrow Crown Court heard on Wednesday that she also claimed that his allegations formed part of a ‘fantasy’.

‘He may well have been in love with me but, you know, this is total fabrication,’ Bowen, whose replies were read out from a transcript by prosecutor Madeleine Wolfe, said.

‘I remember this child: he was not a nice person, he didn’t have a great reputation at school.

‘He hassled me in a not very nice way, he was quite aggressive, he was pushy.

‘It sounds like these are the workings of a fantasy – it’s total nonsense.’

Bowen also claimed the first complainant once followed her to her house from the school, put his foot in the door and asked to be let in.

‘I said, you can’t,’ Bowen told police, adding the first complainant never entered her home address.

She also told police she would get a lot of attention from students at the all-boys school, and had ‘lewd comments’ made about her.

The second complainant alleged he and Bowen kissed on multiple occasions –  including once in a cafe when he was ‘goaded’ into it by other boys, and remembers touching her breasts.

He reported the alleged offence in 2024 and Bowen was interviewed again, but she said she could not remember him.

A former pupil at Christ’s College who was around the same age as the complainants told jurors he remembers ‘rumours’ at the school that Bowen and the first complainant were having sex.

‘It seemed to be of quite common knowledge in my peer group,’ the witness said.

‘In today’s times, things are very different, but at the time that’s just how it was, we just accepted it,’ he added.

The witness, who was never personally taught by Bowen, recalled a bus trip during which the teacher seemed to be enjoying attention from the pupils.

He told jurors: ‘I remember her getting on and I just remember her getting quite a lot of attention from the students, sort of admiring, looks, glances, potentially comments.

‘My impression was that it was a bit inappropriate and she might have been embarrassed or cross – but actually she seemed to be enjoying the attention and smiling, and it struck me as quite odd.’

The witness also told jurors the second complainant disclosed to him during a holiday trip in the spring of 2024 that he ‘had been abused’ by Bowen.

‘The words he used were, “She did stuff to me”,’ he told jurors.

Bowen, of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, denies eight counts of indecent assault against two boys.

The trial continues.