A woman has shared the harrowing details of the prolonged grooming she endured at the hands of her music teacher before he raped her as a teenager.
She was just 17 when Keith Allen, a prominent figure in Birmingham’s music scene during the 1990s, pulled her from the toilet of his home in Harborne and assaulted her in a bedroom despite her protests of ‘no’.
At the time, the victim had suffered an allergic reaction to Chinese food Allen had brought for them, accompanied by wine, which left her vulnerable. Allen, then in his 40s and widely known as Birmingham’s ‘Mr Music’ for his leadership of over a dozen school bands and orchestras, had been grooming her since she was 15.
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The victim first met Allen during her school years where he taught and later received private music lessons from him. Allen was also a well-known local figure, leading Birmingham Schools Music Services and overseeing other music teachers in the city.
“The grooming is the hard bit to explain to people,” the victim told Birmingham Live. “People say why did you go back? But it was so gradual. When you’re in it you don’t realise how you are being manipulated, that is the definition of grooming.”
Throughout their interactions, Allen escalated his inappropriate behaviour - from tapping rhythms on her arm during lessons to touching her face and bottom, and eventually kissing her. He even drove her to school, using detours to frighten and control her.
“He would scare me and do detours in the car. I would be frozen, petrified and he would make out that it was a joke and that I was overreacting. It was proper gaslighting and controlling, I was a kid,” she said.
The victim described the grooming as premeditated and textbook, highlighting the significant power imbalance given Allen’s age and position of trust.
Despite the shame and shattered self-esteem she endures, the victim has found clarity over what happened. “That’s how I can separate the self-blame from what happened. I’m always going to feel that, the shame. It’s really hard. Your self-esteem and self-worth are just shattered.”
The abuse culminated when Allen invited the teenager back to his home and raped her. The trauma remained buried for decades until 2022, when grief for a bereavement caused the memories to resurface, resulting in severe PTSD and flashbacks.
“I pushed it down, I couldn’t deal with it,” the victim explained. “I blocked it all out which I think is a common trauma response. In the last four years it has really hit me. It’s like it happened yesterday. Sometimes I hear certain music and it triggers it. I break into sweats and panic.”
Realising Allen might still be working with children after seeing him conduct a youth orchestra online, she decided to report the abuse. Allen, now 82 and recently living in Oxfordshire, was found guilty of one count of rape at Birmingham Crown Court and sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison.
The victim praised the support she received from police and organisations including the Birmingham Rape & Sexual Violence Project (RSVP). She urged others who have experienced sexual abuse or rape to seek help, emphasising that it is not their fault.
“I would say to other people who have suffered sexual abuse or rape, even if it happened a long time ago and you haven’t disclosed it, a good thing to do is call a support helpline. Sometimes it helps just saying it out aloud. You are going to be believed. You don’t have to report it. You’ve got to do what’s right for you. It can lift a little of the weight and pain from your shoulders,” she said.