Pair who took own lives in Polmont ‘given death sentence’, families’ lawyer says
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Two people who took their own lives in a young offenders institution were “given a death sentence”, a solicitor acting for their families said, as he called for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to change the law to allow prisons to be prosecuted. Katie Allan, 21, and William Brown, 16, also known as William Lindsay, died in their cells at Polmont Young Offenders Institution in 2018 within months of each other.
Ms Allan, a student at Glasgow University, was found dead on June 4 while serving a 16-month sentence for drink-driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving. Mr Brown, who had made repeated attempts on his life in 2017 which were detailed in reports provided on his admission to Polmont, was found dead in his cell on October 7 – three days after he was remanded due to a lack space in a children’s secure unit.
A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) into their deaths was held at Falkirk Sheriff Court last year, led by Sheriff SG Collins KC. In his determination, which was published on Friday, Sheriff Collins described a “catalogue of individual and collective failures by prison and healthcare staff” at the facility.
He found there were reasonable precautions by which both deaths might realistically have been avoided, and that systemic failures contributed to them. He issued 25 recommendations – which the families’ solicitor Aamer Anwar said he believes will be “ignored” by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) unless it becomes mandatory to implement them.
