In May 2012, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a journalist and regular columnist for "The Independent", received an anonymous three-page letter alleging that Hall had groomed and sexually abused the sender while she was a schoolgirl in the 1970s. The writer stated that she had been motivated to disclose her experiences by the reports of sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile after his death and by her anger at Hall's appointment as an OBE in the 2012 New Year Honours. Alibhai-Brown passed the letter to the Metropolitan Police at Ealing police station, who in turn sent it on to Lancashire Constabulary, in whose jurisdiction the alleged offences had occurred, which then began an investigation.