Disappearance of Martin Allen

Background

Allen lived with his parents in a cottage in the grounds of the Australian High Commission in London. His father was chauffeur to the Australian High Commissioner, while his mother worked at a London school.

Disappearance

On 5 November 1979, Allen travelled home on the London Underground. His intention was to go and see his older brother, but he needed to go home first in order to collect some money. At around 3:50 pm he said goodbye to some school friends on King's Cross station and set off in the direction of the Piccadilly line platform to travel home. This was the last positive sighting of Allen and he failed to reach either his parents' or his brother's home.

When he was reported missing, a large scale police operation was launched supported by a media campaign. This failed to locate Allen, though a witness did come forward to report seeing a boy fitting his description in the company of a blond haired man aged about 30 on Gloucester Road underground station. The witness reported that the boy appeared nervous and distressed and that the man had his arm around the boy's shoulder. He also overheard the man tell the boy not to try to run when the pair left the train at Earl's Court station. Identikit pictures of the man were widely circulated, but police were unable to identify him.

Ongoing interest

In 1984, a book on the case by writer Anton Gill was published by Corgi Books. Inquiries continued, but there were no major developments. In 1998 it was reported that police in Liverpool, acting on a tip off, had discovered a shrine dedicated to Martin at the home of an alleged paedophile. This bizarre development prompted a brief resurgence of interest in the case, but no new leads were forthcoming.

Appeal

The case was closed in the 1980s, but reopened in 2009 in light of new information. Allen's parents, Tom and Eileen, conceded they now had no hope of seeing him alive again, believing him to have been abducted. They stated their wish simply to know what had happened and why. The officer leading the new police investigation admitted that police were baffled by the case and that, despite a massive initial inquiry and a good response from the public, they had few leads. Tom and Eileen have both since died.

Ongoing inquiries

In 2012, British police initiated a number of new investigations into child abuse allegations dating back over the previous 20–30 years. This included a re-investigation of the Elm Guest House child abuse scandal. Elm House was a London guest house where it was known that exploitation and abuse of children had taken place repeatedly over a prolonged period of time during the 1970s and 1980s. The location of Elm Guest House, along with the known predatory activities of the individuals involved there have led to media speculation that Martin could have been abducted (and later murdered) by paedophiles active at the guest house around that time. Allen's brother Jeffrey alleged that the detective responsible for the original 1979 investigation was told to stop the case and "not take it further because someone will get hurt". Another source interviewed for Operation Midland claimed Allen was one of three boys murdered by someone with connections to Conservative MP Harvey Proctor. Proctor denied any and all allegations and did not recognise an E-FIT photograph of the boy when questioned. There was no evidence and the MPS failed to put any files to the CPS concerning Mr Proctor who was told no action would be taken against him.

After Midland was closed, Operation Malswick (initially, and briefly, named Marlborough) was formed to specifically investigate Martin Allen's case.