The mum of tragic Glasgow woman, Katie Allan, who died in custody has blasted prosecutors and prison officers for "lies, insults and disdain".
A joint fatal accident inquiry was announced last week into the deaths of Katie and teenager William Lindsay, who both took their lives within months of each other in 2018 at Polmont Young Offenders Institution. Katie was 21 and William just 16.
Katie's mum, Linda, questions why there has been no criminal prosecutions despite evidence of neglect and care failures, reports the Sunday Mail.
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She said: "“In a strange way I am grateful to the Crown Office for the five years we have had to research and to understand what happened to Katie.
“What is so difficult to accept is the knowledge that one day we will have to relive the horror of Katie’s last weeks, in a court, and to accept the amount of additional trauma that has been piled on us for so long.”
Last year the Crown Office declared enough evidence to prosecute Polmont over Katie's death but the SPS is immune from prosecution.
Linda added: "“From the day of Katie’s death, when we were left with no support, to last year, being told that the Crown Office could not prosecute the Scottish Prison Service because of Crown immunity, the trauma has been relentless.”
“The insensitivity of the Crown Office has left me breathless, every single time. At our first meeting when we were told there was no evidence for a criminal prosecution, no one listened to all we had discovered.
She continued: “Then last year we were told there was evidence for a criminal prosecution but due to crown immunity no prosecution would take place, that the Scottish Prison Service materially contributed to our daughter’s death but no action would be taken.
“I am not really sure if we will ever be able to accept this. The political soundbites, the Scottish Prison Service lies, the disdain and insults. Almost weekly hearing ‘every death in custody is a tragedy’ or ‘significant improvements have been made’, so many lies.”
Linda's daughter Katie took her own life in June of 2018 while serving a sentence for a hit-and-run crash while driving drunk. After the series of deaths in Scotland's prisons were highlighted, a Scottish Government review into how such deaths are handled was launched.
The grieving mum added: “The death of our daughter Katie was not normal or anticipated and I am not sure we will ever truly accept she is gone.
"We have had five years to fully inhabit our grief, learning to live life without Katie’s presence, without hearing her laughter or seeing her smile.
“We think of Katie and what she might have been doing if she had lived, now a 26-year-old woman. Where would she be living? Would she have graduated? What would her work be? Would she be a mum? Or travelled? What would she think of the changes in our lives?”
An SPS spokesman said: “The welfare and safety of those in our care is a priority for the SPS. HM Chief Inspector of Prisons wrote there had been ‘considerable strides made in healthcare’ for young people at HMP & YOI Polmont, following an independent review in 2019.”
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