• August 1987 – Alison is sectioned into an NHS mental health hospital in Carlisle – a 35yr old psychiatric nurse called Robert Scott-Buccleuch takes an interest in her. Alison is 21yrs old.
• December 1987 – After a few months back home in Penrith, Alison is again sectioned into the same NHS hospital. Other staff notice Scott-Buccleuch taking an inappropriate interest in her.
• January 1988 – Alison becomes an outpatient of the mental health hospital, under the care of consultant psychiatrist Dr T M Singh.
• August 1988 – Unknown to us and Adult Social Care, Alison has an abortion. The NHS nurse Scott-Buccleuch has been having sex, illegally, on the hospital premises with her. The forms authorising the abortion are signed by Dr T M Singh, the NHS consultant psychiatrist treating Alison. He is aware of what has been going on.

After the abortion, no support is given to Alison. She is blamed for what has happened, told not to talk about it, told nobody will believe her, and encouraged to leave the hospital. The matter is covered up and records relating to what occurred are destroyed. Scott-Buccleuch is given an administrative job in the NHS. He is not reprimanded, disciplined or reported.

• December 1991 – While she is an inpatient of Doncaster NHS mental health services, Alison takes her own life, stepping in front a train at Rotherham Rail Station. The date is around what would have been the 3rd birthday of her aborted baby.
• January 2001 – My older sister Sarah and I find out what had happened to Alison when she had been a patient of the NHS in Cumbria. I approach the NHS and Cumbria police to establish the truth and seek justice.
• February 2002 – Officer Kirkbride of Cumbria police tells me they have interviewed Scott-Buccleuch and says the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) feel there is not enough evidence to secure a conviction. It later emerges the police did not interview the suspect and sent an incomplete file to the CPS. A senior police commander was on the board of the NHS mental health hospital in question.
• Summer 2016 – Following my protestations Cumbria police launch an internal review into the 2001/02 investigation. The findings of this report are so damning they try to stop us obtaining a copy. The report reveals they did not create a basic investigation plan and “mislaid” vital evidence. Cumbria police are forced to launch a fresh investigation into the events relating to Alison.
• February 2017 – During the course of the second police investigation, Robert Scott-Buccleuch admits under caution that he had sex with Alison on hospital premises and admits knowing about the pregnancy and helping arrange the abortion.
• May 2017 – The Crown Prosecution Service tell us that even though the suspect has admitted what he did, they feel it would not be in the public interest to prosecute him. We appeal their decision, they remain unmoved and our appeal is rejected.
• March 2023 – At the High Court in London we are refused a fresh inquest into Alison’s death. The judges, who have no expertise in mental health, do not feel that what happened to Alison would have had an impact on her state of mind at the time of her death.
• Summer 2024 – Now with no other option available to us, we prepare a compelling case to bring a private prosecution against Robert Scott-Buccleuch.
• May 2025 – The Crown Prosecution Service block our attempt to obtain justice. They do not consider that prosecuting a nurse who groomed and abused a mentally ill vulnerable young woman inside an NHS hospital would be in the public interest.

Any hopes we held of obtaining justice via the justice system are now gone. The next step remains learning how to live in the shadow of injustice.