The Joint Fatal Accident Inquiry into the suicides of Katie Allan and William Lindsay begins at Falkirk Sheriff Court.
The Inquiry is set to last around 3 weeks. Katie’s parents Linda and Stuart are both expected to commence their evidence at the start of the Inquiry. Both the families we represent, believe the passage of time has allowed a Scottish Prison Service to cynically operate behind a veil of secrecy, covering up systemic failures & preventable suicides.
Over 5 years have now passed since Katie and William’s death, in that time there have been two Lord Advocates, three Solicitor Generals, three Justice Ministers all apologising for delays, since then William’s mother Christine Lindsay has died, along with his two sisters. Prisoners are now twice as likely to die in prison in 2022 as someone was in 2008. | In October 2022 the families were told the Crown Office had found that a breach of the Health and Safety Act at the prison “materially contributed” to both deaths, but due to the operation of ‘Crown immunity’ no criminal proceedings could be raised against the Scottish Prison Service or the Scottish Ministers.
William Lindsay was only 16 when he was admitted to Polmont Young Offender’s Institute on the 4th October 2018. William was an obvious high suicide risk, yet despite a known history of several suicide attempts, being in and out of care at least 19 times since the age of 3, the absence of a space in a children’s secure unit meant he was remanded to Polmont. The desperate cries of a child went unheard, and on the 7th October 2018 William’s body was found in his cell, after he had taken his own life.
Katie Allan was a geography student at Glasgow University when she was jailed for 16 months after pleading guilty to drink-driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving. Kate had a number of days left to serve before being eligible for release but violated and crushed she could take no more and at the age of 21 she took her own life.
The lifting of Crown immunity must be a priority for the Scottish Government, to date there has been no response as to what action if any has been taken. Whilst an FAI cannot apportion blame, the families of Katie or William hold the Scottish Prison Service and Health Service directly responsible for their deaths and will fight to ensure that other lives can be saved. It is time that the remit of the FAI’s were removed from the Crown Office, there is no reasonable explanation as to why families should have to have to wait up to 8 years for an inquiry to commence, justice delayed is justice denied
The irony is that had Katie or William died in a private prison, a police cell or mental health hospital, it would have been possible to prosecute them. Crown Immunity is a shameful abuse of power and in advance of the FAI’s both families are asking Justice Secretary Angela Constance and the First Minister Humza Yousaf what they intend to do about it.
