THE mum of a girl who took her own life behind bars has told an inquiry how other cons taunted her to “Go hang yourself, give us all peace”.
Linda Allan, 56, told Falkirk Sheriff Court her daughter Katie, 21, also appeared “exhausted” after being kept awake at night by other prisoners shouting abuse at her from neighbouring cells.
Other cons taunted student Katie from neighbouring cells, an inquiry heard
PAKatie’s parents Linda and Stuart Allan outside Falkirk Sheriff Court[/caption]
The FAI is also examining the circumstances of the death of 16-year-old William Lindsay at Polmont
Mrs Allan was giving evidence on the second day of a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) examining the circumstances of her daughter’s death and the death of 16-year-old William Lindsay at Polmont young offenders institution in 2018.
Ms Allan, a student at Glasgow University, was found dead in her cell on June 4 as she was serving a 16-month sentence for drink-driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
She suffered from alopecia and had a history of self-harming which prison staff were aware of.
Mrs Allan said Katie had been “like a rabbit caught in the headlights”.
She told the inquiry she and her son Scott visited her daughter at Polmont on June 3, during which Ms Allan broke down in tears as she recounted her days in prison.
She said: “She told me she had asked to be moved to another cell.
“She didn’t feel safe. She was terrified of the unpredictability of the environment she was in.
“She said she hadn’t slept for three nights because of the berating, things that were being shouted at her, and threats from prisoners in the cells beside her.
“They were very derogatory comments. She was a baldy b*****d, a fat cow, she was a snob [and] the minute she came out of her cell she’d get battered, she might as well go and top herself and ‘Go hang yourself Katie, give us all peace’.
“She was petrified.”
Mrs Allan said that on the way out of the visit hall, she spoke to the prison officer who had been sitting near them, and told her what Katie had said.
The officer said she would speak to the officers in Katie’s hall.
Mrs Allan said that offered her reassurance, so she didn’t do anything else, but left with her son who was also really distressed because he’d seen his sister really upset.
He voice breaking, Mrs Allan added: “It’s the biggest regret of my life that I didn’t phone, or refuse to leave.
Mrs Allan also said after a request for a bandana to cover the bald patch “a mental health nurse apparently came to the hall with BANANAS”.
Two bandanas were later provided by the “kind” wife of a prison officer.
When she got home, she sent Katie an email through the prison system, urging Katie to speak to a warder and to make sure that nothing happened to jeopardise her application for release on home detention curfew for which she would have been eligible in just four weeks.
Choking back tears, her voice breaking with emotion, Mrs Allan read out the final words – “You are loved, you have a home and a life to start rebuilding in a few weeks Katie.
“Please hold onto that. Read your books and try really hard to zone out the noise.
“When you don’t react they’ll get fed up. Love you, Mum.”
At a Press conference afterwards in front of the court, Mrs Allan, said she had studied sheriff’s judgements in over 200 previous inquiries into deaths in custody, and found nothing had changed.
She called for the prison service to be legally obliged to follow the recommendations of FAIs.
She said: “We’ve raised this for the past four years with our elected politicians and it’s been ignored.
She and her husband Stuart, a data analyst, vowed to continue campaigning.
Mrs Allan said: “We’ll feel closure when we go through one, two, three or five years with no suicides in prison.”
She hit out at treatment of Katie in Polmont.
She said: “Katie felt violated after standing in a hall with two prison officers and x number of trainees when she was strip searched.
“Prison officers had a job to do – to recognise, as they put it, clues and cues of suicide risk.
“Katie had lost 60 to 80 percent of her hair, she was covered in self-harming marks, she was covered in eczema, she had weight loss, and she was acutely distressed.
“What really else would need to have happened for that box ‘suicide risk’ to be ticked?”
The inquiry continues.
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