Met Police failed rape survivor Tina Duggan for over 30 years, civil claim reveals

Tina Duggan was drugged and raped from age 15 but her complaints went uninvestigated for decades. Her abuser was jailed in 2023 after she pursued a civil claim against the Met.

Met Police paid compensation to rape survivor ignored for more than three decades

Tina Duggan was 15 years old when Frederick Allchorne began drugging and raping her at a shared house in Sutton, south London — and for more than 30 years, she says, the Metropolitan Police did nothing meaningful about it. BBC News reports that Duggan has now spoken publicly for the first time about those failures, following a civil settlement with the force.

Duggan met Allchorne — who is ten years her senior — in 1984, shortly after visiting her father upon his release from prison. She says she was held at the Sutton property for six years. Allchorne was already married when he went through a marriage ceremony with her; she says she knew nothing of his first wife.

"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."

She had her first child at 16 and a second shortly afterwards. At 17, she was taken to A&E at St Helier Hospital in Carshalton after nearly swallowing her tongue — an episode she attributes to the drugs she was being given. 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. "From that day to this day, I can't understand why I was sent back to the perpetrator to continue his abuse."

She believes one of Allchorne's brothers — now dead — also raped her while she was in a drugged state. She tried to escape on multiple occasions but says she was caught or had nowhere to go. Her GP, she says, turned her away several times.

Complaint closed within a fortnight

In 1991, Duggan reached a women's refuge with her two children and reported Allchorne at Sutton police station. Despite providing her account, hospital records and indecent photographs taken of her, officers told her there was insufficient evidence. The case was closed within two weeks.

"What more evidence could you want? I felt like they just couldn't be bothered," she said.

She says she told no one for years after that. In 2009, the Crown Prosecution Service asked Duggan to provide a character statement about Allchorne, who was then accused of sexually assaulting three children. He was convicted. Duggan says the Met still declined to reopen her own case at that point.

A severe panic attack in 2018 led to a hospital admission, which she says began the process of disclosure. In 2023, Allchorne — then 62 — was jailed for 22 years after admitting rape, administering drugs with intent, indecent assault and bigamy offences against her.

Civil claim and acknowledgement from the Met

Following the conviction, Duggan pursued a civil claim against the Metropolitan Police for negligence. The claim was also brought under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, incorporated into domestic law by the Human Rights Act 1998, which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment.

A settlement was reached on 19 March, without any admission of liability by the force. The Met paid Duggan compensation and acknowledged that more should have been done to protect her at the time.

Iftikhar Manzoor of Hudgell Solicitors, who represented Duggan, said the force's attitude towards vulnerable women in the 1990s was starkly different from today's standards.

"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 added that legal time limits created obstacles for the claim, but that the Met had agreed to negotiate. "The civil claim was not only about financial redress," he said. "It was also about accountability, some answers."

Internal review found no misconduct

A review by the Met's Directorate of Professional Standards examined the force's handling of three reports Duggan made against Allchorne between 1991 and 2018. It found no misconduct by the officers involved.

A Met spokesperson said officers had met Duggan and acknowledged "that more should have been done at the time to protect her." The force said there had been "learnings for the Met" and that it had since changed the way it investigates rape and sexual offences. The spokesperson added: "Every woman and girl in London deserves to feel safe." The force also said arrests and charges for rape in London had more than doubled in the past year.

Duggan still does not know what drugs she was given. She lives with 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.

"It's never, ever too late"

Despite everything, Duggan says she wants others in similar situations to come forward, however long ago the abuse occurred.

"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: BBC News