Parents of inmate, 21, who killed herself inform of her pleas for assist

One second of insanity, one horrible resolution, that was all it took.

Who hasn’t had a kind of moments or time limits when life seems to be operating easily after which, unexpectedly, a alternative made, or motion taken sends all the things heading in a unique course completely?

And the repercussions can reverberate with dreadful impact.

Take Katie Allan — someday a high-achieving college pupil, within the third 12 months of a geography diploma, working two part-time jobs to assist herself, utilizing her weekends to assist her grandparents round their residence, on the lookout for methods to make issues higher for these much less ­lucky than herself.

Then one night she went to a celebration; not a raucous college affair, a celebration with colleagues from the café the place she labored in Glasgow.

She by no means meant to drive that night time; in reality, she left her automotive on the café whereas she went to the pub and loved 4 pints of cider. But later that night she needed to return to the café to get the keys to her flat and when the enterprise proprietor’s ­daughter requested for a raise residence, Katie, who was 4 occasions over the authorized restrict, recklessly agreed.

A split-second resolution. But the influence of that second one ­summer time’s night in August 2017 is one thing that can strike on the core of each guardian watching their youngster navigate maturity.

For that night time Katie knocked down and injured a 15-year-old boy, a teenager the identical age as her personal brother Scott, who was out operating. Thankfully the boy, who suffered a damaged ankle and fractured eye socket, recovered, however the accident was to precipitate a devastating chain of occasions that might culminate in tragedy ten months later, when Katie took her personal life whereas in custody at ­Polmont Young Offenders’ Institution.

Katie’s loss of life and the three months she spent behind bars are actually the topic of scrutiny at a Fatal Accident Inquiry at Falkirk Sheriff Court, together with the unrelated loss of life of one other inmate, William Brown, 16, also called William Lindsay, 4 months later.

Five and half years on from her loss of life, Katie’s mother and father, Stuart and Linda Allan, a hard-working, ­middle-class couple who by no means imagined they’d find yourself right here, are battling for the Scottish Prison Service to be held accountable not only for what occurred to their daughter throughout her i­ncarceration, however to be held accountable for all younger folks in detention.

As Linda mentioned this week, Katie, who turned 21 behind bars, was ‘a fish out of water’ at Polmont. Her love of books, her resolutely good manners, the limitless stream of holiday makers, all set her aside and made her the goal of bullies.

‘Go dangle your self Katie, give us all peace’, was one merciless ­exhortation, which is simply what the damaged younger lady did.

Yes, the jail service had an obligation to punish their daughter, they are saying. But it additionally had an obligation to guard her.

Linda, a former Scottish authorities advisor and an honorary ­medical affiliate professor at Glasgow University, and Stuart, a gross sales reporting supervisor, are clever, affordable folks. They know their daughter deserved to be ­punished for a reckless second that might have been far worse. Nobody is extra keenly conscious than them that it mustn’t have ended thus.

‘What’s so arduous about all this course of is that we have now spent 5 years combating to recollect our daughter earlier than all this occurred,’ says Linda. ‘She was only a shining gentle — a fun-loving, clever, caring, younger lady.’

 The final three months of Katie Allan’s life, performed out in a courtroom this week, make for harrowing listening. Katie, an exquisite younger lady with a mane of blonde hair, was so careworn it ­triggered alopecia, main her to lose 80 per cent of her hair. Her pores and skin was uncooked from eczema and her physique lined in self-harm marks.

One jail warder held again tears as she advised the listening to how she’d sneaked bandanas, towards jail guidelines, into Katie’s cell, to assist masks her baldness and ­shield her from the taunts

Speaking to the Mail, Katie’s ­mother and father recalled the pleased childhood of their bubbly little woman, who performed soccer each weekend and cherished nothing greater than throwing on a wetsuit and plunging into the chilly waters of Arisaig close to Inverness through the household’s annual journeys to their caravan.

‘She was introduced up in a middle-class space,’ says Linda. ‘But we have been all the time very acutely aware of our youngsters being conscious that they have been privileged, figuring out that there have been others that did not have the life that they had.

‘She was only a pleasure; if there was something that was detrimental it was that she typically put different folks’s wants earlier than her personal.’

Stuart and Linda purchased Katie a automotive, a sky blue Fiesta she named Chloe, however she was chargeable for the operating prices. Stuart, the ­sensible, protecting dad, says: ‘We’d all the time be saying do not drink and drive, do not drink and drive and we by no means thought she would. But then one second of insanity . . .’

And there it’s once more. The second round which a life turns

It was approaching 10pm on a night in August 2017 when two cops knocked on the Allan’s door asking for Katie. There had been an ‘incident’, they mentioned.

‘Our quick thought was that Katie had been harm,’ says Linda softly. Stuart adopted the police (the identical two officers who would arrive on the door ten months later to ship the information of Katie’s loss of life) to his daughter’s flat and witnessed her despair as she was led away in handcuffs.

She was saved in custody in a single day and appeared in courtroom the next morning, however Linda wasn’t allowed into the courtroom as a result of the sufferer of the accident was a minor. ‘There was a door with graffiti on it and I used to be advised that is the place she would come out, so I sat on a wall expecting ages and ultimately Katie got here out and I simply grabbed her . . . I simply held her and she or he sobbed and sobbed and sobbed.’

Katie, says Linda, by no means shied away from what she had executed, one thing evidenced by the truth that certainly one of her first actions was to jot down a letter of apology to the boy and his mother and father.

‘It’s fascinating,’ says Linda. ‘After the incident occurred, so many associates mentioned ‘that might have been our daughter’. Children and younger folks make silly errors and, , she did. She broke the legislation and if Katie hadn’t been punished, I believe she would have discovered that troublesome; she knew she needed to be punished and she or he was filled with regret.’

The degree of punishment, nevertheless, was one thing none of them have been ready for. At assembly after assembly, the household was advised that whereas a custodial sentence was potential, it was extremely unlikely.

But regardless of glowing letters from college workers and people who knew Katie, regardless of even a letter from the sufferer’s household pleading for clemency, Katie, who admitted harmful driving whereas over the drink drive restrict, was sentenced to 2 years in jail — diminished to 16 months due to her responsible plea.

Linda, who was sitting behind her daughter, recollects the sharp consumption of breath that appeared to ripple throughout the complete courtroom because the sentence was delivered.

The mom’s exceptional ­composure momentarily crumbles as she recollects: ‘Katie turned spherical to me and mentioned ‘assist me Mum’ as they have been handcuffing her and taking her away.

‘Stuart and I left courtroom ­instantly, I used to be crying and one of many companions from the authorized agency got here out and mentioned ‘don’t be concerned, it is 16 months however will probably be halved and she’s going to solely serve 4 in ­custody, she will likely be out in time for her subsequent semester at college.

‘We have been advised nothing, not what jail she was going to, nothing, she was simply actually ripped out of our arms, that is what it felt like.’

As these decided mother and father know all too painfully, the nightmare had solely simply begun.

Katie’s tiny in a single day bag (packed simply in case) contained just one set of underwear, no ­sanitary provides; the toiletries she had packed weren’t allowed and the one footwear she had have been the good black footwear she had worn along with her new black ­trouser swimsuit.

From the beginning Katie’s vulnerabilities ought to have been apparent. Initially held at Cornton Vale jail, her admission notes recorded that she had beforehand self-harmed, suffered from ­alopecia and eczema. But in her evaluation on arrival at Polmont, the FAI heard this week that none of this was recorded.

‘No psychological well being points,’ was what the admitting nurse recorded, together with noting Katie reported feeling ‘anxious’ about being in custody for the primary time.

It was per week earlier than Stuart and Linda subsequent noticed their daughter. If they have been horrified by having to be patted down and having their mouths looked for illicit medicine, seeing the change of their ­daughter was a lot worse.

‘When I gave proof I mentioned she was like a rabbit within the headlights,’ says Linda. ‘And that is what she was, she was so involved concerning the influence of what was taking place on us that she would smile and say she was high quality.

‘But what we noticed was completely different. Immediately her eczema had flared up and she or he was scratching her arms, inside a few weeks her hair loss began. To see your lovely 20-year-old daughter’s blonde hair fall out in clumps, eyebrow, eyelashes . . . that was arduous.’

Katie was despatched books to proceed her diploma research, however was advised she had too many and needed to give them away.

Stuart inspired his daughter to benefit from any alternatives there have been to remain occupied so she took a geography class; he chuckles as he recollects the category content material — colouring in a map.

‘It was such a mixture of completely different folks on her ground,’ he says. ‘There have been some violent folks and Katie being, , from a working, middle-class background was pinpointed. She was focused as being a snob.’

What’s abundantly clear is how palpably Katie wasn’t a snob. She made associates with an older lady prisoner (some grownup feminine prisoners are held at Polmont), and baked a cake for her within the jail kitchens. The lady’s crime? Murder.

The pupil’s tight-knit ­household made certain there was a stream of holiday makers, each two to 3 days, to buoy her spirits.

But the final go to — a Sunday afternoon, with Katie’s brother Scott, is one Linda will always remember.

‘The minute we received into the visiting corridor, I knew one thing was fallacious. She appeared dreadful, she appeared exhausted, she had darkish shadows below her eyes. She was nearly vacant. I bear in mind pondering, have you ever taken medicine, Katie?’

At first Katie, who was a month away from being launched on residence detention, insisted she was OK. And then the rattling burst.

‘She burst out crying. I imply sobs,’ says Linda. ‘She advised me that there had been a combat, a bodily combat that day, and I mentioned you have simply received to remain out of the way in which Katie. Then I requested why she appeared so drained and she or he mentioned she hadn’t slept for 3 nights, that a few of the ladies had been shouting nasty issues . . .’

Encouraging a weak, acutely distressed, sleep-deprived younger lady to take her personal life arguably goes nicely past ‘nasty issues’. It’s fairly clear that for Katie, situations had change into insupportable.

Linda was so frightened about her daughter’s psychological and bodily state, she spoke to a jail officer earlier than leaving. ‘Don’t fear’ she was advised.

Only later did Linda be taught that the jail’s response to Katie’s anguish was to inform her she could be moved to the grownup wing of the jail. If it wasn’t so heartbreaking it could be laughable.

Katie was discovered hanging in her cell the next morning. Katie left a short closing observe through which she mentioned: ‘I’m sorry it has come to this. I’ve allow you to each down, and Scott as a sister. I cherished you very a lot.’

Everything Linda and Stuart have executed since their daughter’s loss of life has been about below­standing what occurred and about making an attempt to guarantee that it could possibly’t occur once more.

Lawyer Aamer Anwar, who’s representing each them and the household of William Brown, has demanded Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf take away Crown immunity from the Scottish Prison Service, which exempts the service from prosecution for deaths.

As Linda says: ‘We will not be asking for very a lot, simply that prisons in a civilised society are held to account.

‘What occurred to Katie may occur to any younger one who makes a silly mistake, a fallacious alternative, this might occur to anybody’s youngster.’