Brother's anger over Katie Allen's dying in younger offender unit

The brother of a younger lady who took her personal life whereas in a youth offender's jail says the justice system killed her.

When Katie Allen was 21 Was discovered useless in her cell at Polmont Young Offenders Institution In June 2018, sentenced to 3 months and 16 months for drink driving.

Her brother Scott, now the identical age as his sister when she died, instructed BBC Scotland that she was unsafe, deserted and “destroyed” by the system that stored her protected.

His case is certainly one of three deaths in custody at Polmont that are being investigated by a deadly accident inquiry.

Scheduling of a joint investigation into Katie's dying 16 12 months previous William Brown can be printed on Friday, with the outcomes of the investigation into the suicide of 20-year-old Jack McKenzie to be launched later in 2021.

The FAI into Katie's dying heard that she was weak and had a historical past of self-harm, of which Polmont jail workers weren’t conscious.

It was additionally heard that she was struggling in jail and was being taunted and threatened by different prisoners earlier than her dying.

Her mom Linda instructed the inquest at Falkirk Sheriff Court that her daughter was traumatized by the abuse.

She stated that somebody had shouted at her, “Go and hang yourself Katie and give us all peace”.

Her brother Scott was 15 on the time, however he says that at the same time as a younger teen he may see the issues within the jail system that brought about his sister to be “too scared to survive”.

Scott stated that the jail setting was slowly killing Katie and that the officers “left” her to get better from it.

“They murdered him openly,” he instructed BBC Scotland News.

“They tortured him. They defiled him. They destroyed someone and then, when all was said and done, he was given the mercy of death.

“They didn't simply kill him, they destroyed him.”

The Allen family has always maintained that Katie has admitted her crime and accepted that she must be punished.

She apologized and during sentencing the court heard that the family of the 15-year-old boy she hit and injured with her car did not want Katie to go to jail.

Nevertheless he was given a custodial sentence.

“He made a mistake and it value him his life,” Scott stated.

The FAI heard Katie had struggled in prison.

The prison officer allotted to her told the inquiry that she was “not meant for jail”.

Her mother said Katie endured taunts because of her hair loss due to alopecia and her mental health deteriorated “considerably” while in custody.

She said her daughter was “extremely distressed”.

Scott remembers the last time he saw his sister at Polmont.

“Both my mother and I told a prison officer, he needs to be kept a careful eye on him tonight, he is very weak.

“I knew something was going to happen that night.

“He was either going to be beaten or he was going to be in an isolated cell.

“But I never imagined anything worse could happen.”

He said that at 15 he didn't understand the legal jargon and why his sister was in prison, but he understood what he saw happening to her there.

He said, “I was slowly watching someone I valued slowly become less than myself.”

“After each meeting she would become a little less comfortable, she would become a little less adjusted, she would be exposed to an environment that was slowly killing her.

“Even if she had survived and got out of prison, she would not have been the same person.”

The day after that last meeting, on June 3, Scott was called out of his class at school. He remembers it well.

“It was during my lunch break,” Scott said.

“I got a call from my mom and she said, can you please come to the main point?

“I said OK, 'What's going on?'.”

At the school car park, Scott remained sitting in the car while his mother told him what had happened.

Scott said he “instantly broke down”.

“I have lost the most important person in my life.”

Scott found it difficult to cope with the grief of losing his sister.

“I was angry the whole time,” he said.

“I was a kid, and I could see the flaws in the prison system.

“How can they not understand flaws when a child can see it?

“Lack of empathy. And this was evident not only from my sister, but also from the stories she told me about other prisoners at Polmont.

“They're just not ready to move forward on this.”

Scott described his loss as losing many loved ones.

“Katie was about three people,” he said.

“She was my best friend, my big sister and almost like a second mother to me.

“She was very close to me. I was very close to her. I could always be very honest with her.”

“She always helped me break out of my shell.”

Nearly seven years later, Scott feels that his life is just moving on after being hit by grief in his teenage years.

He said he went to Edinburgh University to “get away from it all” and make a fresh start, but sadness got in the way of making new friends and meeting people.

He long viewed alcohol as the enemy as a result of its role in his sister's punishment.

He was “deeply saddened” and found it impossible to talk about psychological or philosophical concepts in his degree course because it would trigger memories.

After years of crippling grief and panic attacks, he says he has to “learn how to be a person again” but now believes he is starting to look towards the future.

The purpose of a fatal accident investigation is to establish what happened and prevent future deaths in similar circumstances.

The Allen family are also seeking changes to the law to address Crown immunity – which protects the prison service from prosecution – as well as improvements to the FAI process and improvements to legal aid.

Scott hopes that Katie's legacy will eventually change – giving her death some meaning.

He said, “This won't happen to anyone else, or at least it will happen to very few people as a result of the work we've done.”

But he still misses her every day.

“I have so many memories with Katie. I wish deep down I could make more, but I know I can't.”

A Scottish Prison Service spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with the families of Katie Allen and William Lindsay.

“As we now await the publication of the fatal crash investigation determination, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”