The families of two young people who took their own lives in custody are to sue the Scottish Prison Service after a damning ruling on their deaths.
Katie Allan, 21, and William Lindsay, 16, died in separate incidents at Polmont Young Offenders Institution just months apart in 2018.
The fatalities sparked a six-year fight for justice backed by a series of Sunday Mail reports exposing systemic failings and alleged cover ups at the jail.
That campaign was vindicated on Friday when a scathing Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) found a litany of shortcomings on the part of both the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) and healthcare staff.
And we can reveal William’s brother John Reilly and Katie’s parents Stuart and Linda Allan will now take civil action against the SPS as they believe officials are hiding more information behind a cloak of criminal immunity which protects prisons in UK law.
That’s despite the Crown Office admitting there was credible evidence to pursue a criminal prosecution.
Linda said: “There were several incidents for Katie and William that we listened to during the inquiry and there were inconsistencies.
“The night before Katie took her own life she was being bullied.
“Her personal officer said it was a minor skirmish, another officer on duty said it was the worst violence she had seen in 10 years. Somebody is lying there. The civil action will help us to uncover more of the truth in that.”
John added: “Six years is a lifetime for some people, and so much can change. For me it’s been stagnant. Life has not moved on for me. For so long I think the prison service hoped that we would just want to go on with our lives and let it go.
“I’m never going to let them get away with it, no matter how long they want to drag it out. We’ll always be fighting their case. Nobody else can die like they did.”
The families also hope to recover some of the costs spent in the years since Katie and William’s deaths in their battle for justice so far.
In his FAI determination into William and Katie’s deaths Sheriff Simon Collins made 25 recommendations and highlighted failings across the prison and health services. It took more than six years to reach the conclusions published on Friday.
The sheriff found that information about previous mental health problems, self harming and suicide attempts hadn’t been properly shared with the SPS by the health service.
William had attempted to take his own life or said he wanted to at least 14 times before his death – details which were recorded by police and social workers he had come into contact with.
He also suggested that cells be regularly checked to identify anything that could be used as a “ligature point” after Katie and William used furniture to take their own lives.
Similar items had been used previously by others but they were still present in the youngsters’ cells.
Katie’s mum Linda said: “The hardest thing for us to accept is that literally a screwdriver could have saved Katie’s life. A bunk bed being replaced with a single bed could have saved William’s life.
“Numerous other people have used hooks on the walls which were not anti-ligature hooks, others have used a bunk bed. It is still happening. What is the point of a review process if the individuals in the prison service don’t bother addressing how these young people died?”
Katie died on June 4, 2018 after being convicted of injuring someone while drink driving.
Her social enquiry report recommended that she was given a non-custodial punishment and her family pleaded with the sheriff not to jail her. Despite this she was told there was no way she could avoid prison.
William was just 16 when he died, having been failed throughout his life by the services supposed to be in place to protect him.
He was the youngest of five siblings and had lived in 27 different social work placements including in secure units and foster homes during his short life.
On October 3, 2018 he was arrested after walking into Saracen Street police station in Glasgow with a knife, placing it on the counter. His family believed it was a cry for help.
William should have been placed in a secure children’s unit but was remanded to Polmont as there were no spaces available elsewhere.
He was found dead in his cell less than four days later at 7.40am on October 7 2018. His family have been fighting for answers ever since.
The Sunday Mail has revealed issues at the youth prison over the past six and a half years and campaigned alongside the families and their lawyer Aamer Anwar for justice.
Anwar said he would stop at nothing to get to the truth and warned that if any witnesses have been found to have been untruthful during the FAI Inquiry he would pursue further action.
He said: “A civil process is often used by us to extract information which has been previously denied. Often when they realise a civil action is coming up information starts to materialise.
“It enables us to go back to the Crown and ask more questions and opens the door to point out the inaccuracies. If we find a single person who has lied we will be pushing for perjury charges.”
A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: “Our thoughts remain with the families of Katie Allan and William Lindsay and we would like to take this opportunity to offer our sincere condolences and apologies for the mistakes identified in the FAI determination.
“As this is subject to ongoing proceedings we are unable to comment further.”
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