Disappearance of Martin Allen
Martin Duncan Allen was a 15-year-old British boy who disappeared while travelling home from Central Foundation Boys' School on the London Underground on 5 November 1979. He was last definitively seen alive at King's Cross St Pancras tube station at approximately 3:50 p.m. walking toward the Piccadilly line platform, although subsequent eyewitness statements indicate Allen may have travelled—willingly or otherwise—to Earl's Court tube station in the company of an adult male.
Allen is strongly suspected to have been abducted, possibly by a member or members of a paedophile ring, although no definitive suspect has ever been identified.
Despite an intense police investigation and extensive media coverage, no one has ever been charged with his abduction, and Allen's fate remains unknown. Although officially a cold case, Allen's disappearance has been subject to periodic review, and the case remains open.
Early life
Martin Duncan Allen was born in Islington, London, on 19 October 1964, the youngest of four sons born to Thomas and Eileen Allen. His father was a chauffeur, and his mother a secretary at Tufnell Park Primary School. The family were working class and close-knit, and lived in a council flat in Hornsey in North London. The brothers frequently spent weekends ice skating at Alexandra Palace.Adolescence
In 1976, Thomas Allen gained prestigious employment as the chauffeur to the Australian High Commissioner, Sir Gordon Freeth. The Allen family moved into a five-bedroom grace-and-favour cottage in the grounds of the Australian High Commission in Kensington, and their socioeconomic status improved. Their new neighbours included the De Beers jewellery family, and Allen and his brother Kevin earned £5 cleaning the commissioner's fleet of imported Ford Fairlane cars every Saturday. Politicians such as Margaret Thatcher and Edward Heath were regular visitors to the High Commission and high profile people often socialised in the grounds. Kevin Allen recollected in 2015: "There were garden parties over the fence from us; Thatcher knew my Dad to say hello to."Allen attended the Central Foundation Grammar School in Old Street, approximately from the family's Reston Place cottage. He often travelled to school on the London Underground, leaving the train at Old Street station. Although described as a shy boy, he was an intelligent pupil, with a particular flair for French, mathematics, and drawing. By his fifteenth birthday, Allen was in height, slightly-built, and looked slightly younger than his years. His hobbies included photography, bicycling, drawing, and model railways.
5 November 1979
On Monday 5 November 1979, Allen travelled to school on the London Underground with his 17-year-old brother Jeffrey. The brothers travelled on the Circle line from Gloucester Road tube station to King's Cross St Pancras tube station, where they transferred to the Northern line to Old Street station. The brothers arrived at school shortly before 9 a.m.File:Kings Cross St Pancras stn Piccadilly southbound look north.JPG|right|229px|thumb|The southbound Piccadilly line at King's Cross St Pancras tube station. Allen was last seen close to this location at 3:50 p.m. on 5 November 1979.
Allen's day was unremarkable, and he finished school at 3 p.m. He and a friend, Ian Fletcher, travelled home from school together on the Underground. Fletcher later told investigators he and Allen parted company at King's Cross St Pancras tube station, and that he last saw his friend on an escalator to the southbound Piccadilly line platform at approximately 3:50 p.m. after Allen had simply said "See ya tomorrow", before Fletcher walked to another platform. Allen was wearing his school uniform and carrying a distinctive yellow schoolbag inscribed with the word "Astral". Fletcher was adamant Allen had been alone when descending the escalator.
In addition to a lunchbox, PE kit, schoolbooks and stationery, Allen's schoolbag contained a new transformer for his model railway, and an item of woollen clothing his mother had knitted for her first grandchild and which Allen planned to give to his oldest brother, Robert, and his sister-in-law, Susan, that afternoon. He had initially intended to travel to their Holloway Road home immediately after leaving school, but told friends he would first have to go home to collect a £1 note to give his sister-in-law as payment towards a digital watch he had recently bought from her mail-order catalogue. The trip home then to Holloway Road via the tube network would have taken Allen approximately twenty-five minutes.
Disappearance
Allen failed to arrive either at home or at his brother's Holloway Road home. His disappearance was not noted for over twenty-four hours as his parents assumed that he had stayed overnight with his brother and sister-in-law and would come home the following evening. He typically stayed there on Mondays as his mother attended fitness classes and his father often returned home from work late. His brother—who had no telephone—assumed Allen had returned home from school, possibly to attend Guy Fawkes Night celebrations at Battersea Park with their brother Kevin, so neither his parents nor any of his brothers realised he was missing until the following evening.When he did not return home from school on the afternoon of 6 November, his parents contacted his best friend, Robert Toft, and discovered Allen had not been at school that day. Eileen Allen then phoned her oldest son, Robert, at 7 p.m., and learned Allen had not arrived at his home the previous day and that he had assumed this was because of the Guy Fawkes Night celebrations. After calling several of his other friends, and finding they had not seen him since the previous day, Thomas and Eileen Allen called the Metropolitan Police to report him missing.
Initial investigation
Police believed Allen was abducted, strongly suspecting a "violent or sexual motive", and an intense manhunt was launched to find him. After receiving several eyewitness reports of an adult male likely seen in his company on the London Underground, the police attempted to identify the man seen with Allen. Detective Chief Inspector David Veness was given command of the investigation, and numerous officers were assigned to the case. Extensive media publicity was devoted to the manhunt, with the Australian High Commissioner, Sir Gordon Freeth, also offering a financial reward for information leading to Allen's whereabouts.Investigators initially focused their search in North London, conducting searches in areas of interest such as vacant land and derelict properties in and around Holloway, King's Cross, and around Allen's home and school. These searches failed to yield any clues. Officers also conducted door-to-door inquiries in and around Earl's Court and West Brompton, and questioned members of the gay community and members of the public travelling on the tube network. Numerous suspects, including several known sex offenders, were questioned but eliminated from the inquiry.
Initial media reports indicate the last confirmed sighting of Allen was made by Ian Fletcher as he observed Allen descending the escalator to the southbound Piccadilly line platform at King's Cross; however, later reports—allegedly corroborated by his brother Kevin—indicate Allen had returned home at approximately 5 p.m. to retrieve the money to give to his sister-in-law as payment towards his digital watch before quickly leaving the household.
Televised reconstruction
Four weeks after Allen's disappearance, a reconstruction of his movements from Old Street station along the tube network was broadcast on the BBC current affairs programme Nationwide. Police received six reports of sightings of a man "forcibly guiding a small boy, his hand on the back of the boy's neck" onto a train at Gloucester Road tube station at 4:15 p.m. on 5 November, approximately half an hour after Ian Fletcher had last seen Allen at King's Cross station. The train had been a Piccadilly line train bound for Earl's Court station, and the boy had been dressed in grey trousers and a dark blue blazer emblazoned with a crest similar to that of Central Foundation Boys' School. He had also been carrying a yellow schoolbag.Suspect description
Each witness described the man as being in his thirties, and several reported he had been standing with his arm around the boy's shoulder, who closely resembled Allen. The boy had appeared distressed and both appeared to be nervous as they boarded the train. One of the eyewitnesses had seen the man prod the boy in the back before stating: "Don't try to run!" The pair left the train at Earl's Court station—the man again warning the boy against attempting to run.The witnesses described the man as reasonably well-spoken, white, in his thirties, approximately in height and with distinctive blonde hair and a prominent moustache. He had been wearing a mid-blue denim jacket and trousers, and a shirt and tie. A composite drawing of this individual was released to the media on 8 December.
Further police efforts
Before the Nationwide broadcast, the search had been largely focused around North London. Afterwards, with eyewitness accounts of Allen's movements with a man, investigators concentrated their search for Allen and his abductor in West London, particularly near Gloucester Road and Earl's Court. The evident intimidation used in the abduction further solidified investigators' belief the motive behind Allen's abduction was sexual, and that he had likely been abducted by a member of a paedophile ring.The police effort to identify the man seen with Allen included London's biggest ever house-to-house search at the time, with officers visiting over 40,000 homes around Earl's Court and showing residents the composite drawing released to the media. The identikit picture was also widely disseminated via police and media across London, although no member of the public was definitively able to identify the man depicted, and no individual came forward to identify himself as the individual seen with the schoolboy and thus eliminate himself from the inquiry.