In 2016, almost thirty years after grooming Alison Robert Scott-Buccleuch was forced to admit to police he’d had sex on hospital premises. He knew Alison was pregnant and helped arrange an abortion – hiding the result of his crimes. He could have admitted this in 2001 but he refused a police interview and Cumbria police did not pursue the matter, even lying to us about interviewing him when they knew they had not. He justified his crimes saying he didn’t know he’d done anything wrong – if that’s true, why did he refuse an interview in 2001?

The CPS have had three opportunities to do the right thing. Even though the crimes have been admitted they say it is not in the public interest to prosecute the perpetrator. Their most recent and final decision in May 2025 has closed the door to justice. You can bet that if celebrities had been involved, the CPS would be all over this case like a rash.

Serious crimes were committed under the noses of NHS managers and staff. Instead of intervening, they concealed them. A mentally ill young woman then found herself in such a dark place she ended her own life and no one has been held accountable? The NHS, Police, and CPS, all failed Alison. If the services we fund will not safeguard the rights of the vulnerable, what is their purpose?

The message from the CPS is that the vulnerable, the mentally ill, and the dead who cannot speak up, do not matter. How is it not in the Public Interest to prosecute a man who groomed a vulnerable young woman while she was in the care of an NHS hospital? The CPS tried to deny our right to review their decision, saying we could not prove a link between Alison’s state of mind, her suicide and the criminal acts in question…but we have shared a wealth of internationally respected research with them, which they have ignored. Their approach to this case has ensured that other victims from the hospital, of which we suspect there are many, will never be discovered. In 2016 a former manager from the hospital said they were aware of numerous reports of rape on the wards. Former patients told me staff at the hospital frequently engaged in unlawful sex with patients. A former employee said a group of staff calling themselves the Dogs of War met in the hospital social club to share stories of their exploits. Some even regarded sex with patients as a “perk of the job”. The CPS decision not to prosecute this case is simply to ensure their own ineptitude remains hidden.

It is clear Cumbria Police did not want this case in 2001, nor did they want it reopened in 2015. They always made us feel they were doing us a favour. Even after being presented with evidence they “mislaid” in the first investigation, they tried to avoid reopening the case. They’ve never clarified what happened to that evidence or explained the role of a Senior Police Commander who was on the board of the NHS Trust during the 2001 investigation. Were the investigating officers told to kick our case into the long grass?

In 1988/89, Cumbria NHS closed its eyes to the serious crimes being committed. In 2001 executives had a chance to right this wrong. Instead, they were so focused on managing their reputation, they brushed the matter under the carpet, again, and withheld evidence from the Police. The reputation of the Trust was deemed more important than justice for a young woman no longer able to speak for herself.

So what do we want?