Met Police failed abuse survivor Tina Duggan for over 30 years, civil claim finds

Tina Duggan was drugged and raped from age 15 but her complaints were repeatedly dismissed. The Met has since paid compensation after settling her civil negligence claim.

Drugged and raped from 15: survivor speaks out after Met Police settlement

Google News UK — Crime (en) reports that Tina Duggan, who was drugged and raped from the age of 15, has spoken publicly for the first time about decades of police failures she says allowed her abuser, Frederick Allchorne, to evade justice for more than 30 years.

Tina was 15 when she met Allchorne — ten years her senior — in 1984, after visiting her father following his release from prison. She says she was held at a shared house in Sutton, south London, for six years. Allchorne was already married when he went through a marriage ceremony with her, she says knowing nothing of his first wife. She had her first child at 16.

"From the age of 15, after I ate or drank something, I was gone, as if you're going to go into an operation," she said. "One minute you're there, and next minute you're gone."

At 17, she was taken to A&E at St Helier Hospital in Carshalton after she was at risk of swallowing her tongue — an effect she attributes to the drugs Allchorne administered. A doctor asked what she had taken. "I didn't even know what he meant by drugs. He had to explain to me in detail that it was a form of tablet," she said. She was subsequently sent back to Allchorne. "From that day to this day, I can't understand why I was sent back to the perpetrator to continue his abuse."

She says she tried to escape on multiple occasions but was caught or had nowhere to turn. Her GP turned her away several times. Other men came in and out of the house; she believes one of Allchorne's brothers, now dead, also raped her while she was drugged.

In 1991, Tina reached a women's refuge with her two children and reported Allchorne at Sutton police station. Officers told her there was insufficient evidence despite her account, hospital records and indecent photographs taken of her. The case was closed within a fortnight. "What more evidence could you want? I felt like they just couldn't be bothered," she said.

She told no one for years. In 2009, the Crown Prosecution Service approached Tina for a character statement in a separate case: Allchorne stood accused of sexually assaulting three children and was convicted. The Met still declined to reopen her case.

In 2018, Tina was admitted to hospital following a severe panic attack, which she says began the process of disclosure. She still does not know what drugs she was given. She has complex post-traumatic stress disorder and several physical conditions. "I've suffered all my life, and I'm still suffering now. I'm haunted by what's happened," she said.

In 2023, Allchorne — 62 at sentencing — was jailed for 22 years after admitting rape, administering drugs with intent, indecent assault and bigamy offences against her.

Tina subsequently filed a civil negligence claim against the Metropolitan Police. The claim was also brought under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, incorporated by the Human Rights Act 1998, which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment. The settlement, reached on 19 March, was made without any admission of liability by the force.

Iftikhar Manzoor of Hudgell Solicitors, who represented Tina in the civil claim, described the Met's attitude to vulnerable women in the 1990s as starkly different from today. "It's absolutely staggering that Tina was there, crying out for help and assistance, raising her complaints and not being taken seriously, not once but twice," he said. Manzoor noted that time limits had created legal obstacles but that the Met had agreed to negotiate. "The civil claim was not only about financial redress — it was also about accountability, some answers," he said.

The Met said officers had met with Tina and acknowledged "that more should have been done at the time to protect her." A review by the force's Directorate of Professional Standards examined its handling of three reports she made against Allchorne between 1991 and 2018 and found no misconduct by the officers involved.

A spokesperson said there had been "learnings for the Met" and that it had since changed the way it investigates rape and sexual offences. "Every woman and girl in London deserves to feel safe," the spokesperson added. The force says arrests and charges for rape in London have more than doubled in the past year.

Tina is now urging others who have experienced abuse to come forward, regardless of how long ago events took place. "The perpetrator got punished for what he did, for all the years that he damaged me. So it's never, ever too late. People have got to do the right thing. It's hard but they're not alone," she said. "I do think people like myself speaking out loud is important. If I can help one person, then it's all been worth it."

Source: Google News UK — Crime (en)