Katie Allan, 21, took her own life within months of arriving at Polmont Young Offenders Institution, near Falkirk, for dangerous driving.

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A joint inquiry is investigating the death of Katie and that of William Brown, 16, after both were found dead in their cells in separate incidents at the Young Offenders Institution.

The inquiry heard that Katie, from Clarkston, Glasgow, a 3rd-year geography student at Glasgow University, was jailed for 16 months for dangerous driving while over the drink limit on March 5, 2018

She was initially taken to Cornton Vale Prison, Stirling, telling a nurse when she arrived that she had previously self-harmed by cutting herself on the wrists.

She was transferred two days later to Polmont YOI, near Falkirk.

She suffered from eczema and the hair loss condition alopecia. Within seven weeks, her solicitors emailed the Scottish Prison Service requesting she be seen by a doctor immediately for the condition and was by then showing “visible signs of baldness”.

Her earliest date of release was November 2, 2018, but she could have been eligible for release on home detention curfew on July 3.

In Polmont, she was prescribed medication for her eczema and alopecia.

Between March and her death in June, she attended 15 drop informal drop in sessions at the junior jail with charity Barnardos, designed to “build positive relationships” with other young people in Polmont.

She also received regular visitors but was twice subjected to strip searches by warders.

Just the afternoon before she was found dead, she was visited by her mother and brother.

The inquiry was told that it was “a matter of agreement” that at the end of the visit, her mother, Linda Allan, told a prison officer that Katie “was being berated by fellow inmates and was terrified”.

She was last seen alive by prison staff at about 8.10 pm that day, June 3, 2018, watching television in her cell. She said “Hi” to a prison warder.

She left a handwritten note on the desk in her cell, and handwritten letters to her mother, grandmother and a friend were found on her bookshelf.

She had lost more than a stone in weight — seven kilos — during her three months in Polmont.

The inquiry heard that William, also known as William Lindsay, was sent to Polmont while still legally a child, just four months after the tragic death of Katie, after being in and out of council care, in secure accommodation and with foster carers.

He had a history of making suicidal statements, had told a teacher he was going to kill himself, had been removed from a train, intoxicated, after saying he wanted to kill himself, and in May 2017 he was taken to the emergency department of the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow, after being seen on railway tracks while stating he was suicidal.

Seven months later he was taken to A&E after trying to cut his own throat with a knife and and was twice found by police attempting to get himself struck by cars.

He was found hanged in Polmont YOI, on October 7, 2018.

This was less than four days after a sheriff at Glasgow Sheriff Court remanded him in custody to Polmonth on charges of having a knife — he had walked into a police station carrying it — as well as police assault and statutory breach of the peace.

The inquiry heard was sent to prison despite being still only 16 after repeated attempts failed to find him a bed in a secure children’s unit in the prison system failed — no secure bed could be found.

The sheriff who remanded him said he posed a potential risk to public safety.

William told a social worker who spoke to him in the court before he was taken to prison and had asked if he was suicidal, “No, not now, but I don’t know how I’ll be in prison”.

‘AVOIDABLE DEATHS’

Crown counsel Iain Halliday said that on the day of his admission to Polmont, William was initially placed on 30 minute observations, but taken off them the next day — October 4, 2018 — after a case conference assessed him “of no apparent risk of suicide”.

He was found hanged in his cell less than 72 hours later.

Ms Allan’s parents, Linda and Stuart, both families’ solicitor Aamer Anwar as he made a statement on their behalf, saying they “believe that the SPS has no accountability for the avoidable deaths of young people”, saying that while the Crown Office found “evidence to pursue a criminal prosecution against the Scottish Prison Service but Crown immunity prevents them from doing so”.

Deborah Coles, executive director of Inquest, backed their call to lift Crown immunity, adding: “The deaths of Katie and William really should shame us all.”

A SPS spokesperson said: “The loss of any person in our care is devastating and we recognise the profound impact it has. Everyone who enters custody is assessed to identify what support is needed.”

They said it would be inappropriate to comment further given the FAI.

A spokesperson for the Crown Office said: “We acknowledge that the wait for these proceedings has been too long and has caused distress for Katie and William’s families.

“The FAI will allow a public airing of all the evidence at which families and interested parties will be represented.

“The families and legal representatives will continue to be kept updated as the inquiry progresses.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with every family who has been bereaved by suicide in prisons.

“Fatal Accident Inquiries are a matter for the independent Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

“We cannot comment on these cases with the approaching Fatal Accident Inquiry and we will carefully consider the outcome.”

The inquiry, before Sheriff Simon Collins KC at Falkirk Sheriff Court, continues today with evidence from family members.

It is expected to last three weeks.

If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the Samaritans for free on 116123.

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