Lily Allen accuses Met of '˜shaming' over stalking

Lily Allen has accused the police of 'victim-shaming' her after she spoke out about being dissatisfied with their response to her stalking case.

Lily Allen. Picture: PA

In an interview with BBC Newsnight, the singer read out an email she had received from a Met officer who said that the “high-profile” nature of her claims could discourage other victims from coming forward.

She told presenter Kirsty Wark: “I think it’s victim-shaming and victim-blaming.”

Allen, 30, revealed her seven-year ordeal at the hands of stalker Alex Gray, also 30, from Perth, in a newspaper interview on Sunday where she detailed the time he had burst into her home while she and her children were sleeping, had threatened to stab her through the face and spent nights hiding in her garden.

She claimed that investigators had treated her as a “nuisance rather than a victim”, had destroyed evidence that supported her case, taken away a panic alarm after a few months and even refused to allow her to see and then keep a photo of her stalker.

Gray was charged with burglary after he broke into Allen’s bedroom in October last year while she was sleeping and screamed at her before stealing her handbag.

He was also charged with harassment.