Tragic student's parents insist 'this could happen to anyone's child'
The parents of tragic student Katie Allan who was controversially jailed before taking her own life due to alleged bullying in prison say "This could happen to anyone's child".
The third-year geography undergraduate, 21, was working two part-time jobs to support herself while helping out her grandparents on the weekends as well as other charity work. After a party at a pub in August 2017 with colleagues at a café she worked at in Glasgow, she recklessly agreed to give her boss' daughter a lift home, despite having drunk four pints of cider.
She knocked down a 15-year-old boy out for a run and fled the scene. The victim suffered a broken ankle and fractured eye socket but recovered. However, despite it being a first offence and pleas from the boy's parents, Katie was jailed. Three weeks before she was due to be released from Polmont Young Offenders' Institution on tag she took her own life.
Her three months behind bars are being scrutinised at a Fatal Accident Inquiry at Falkirk Sheriff Court, alongside the death of another inmate, William Brown, 16, four months later. Five-and-a-half years on from their daughter's death, Katie's parents Stuart and Linda Allan are battling for answers.
Linda and Stuart Allan arrive at Falkirk Sheriff Court (PA)They said Katie was a "fish out of water" at Polmont. She loved reading, had good manners and enjoyed regular visitors - which made her a target for constant bullying, the stress of which triggered alopecia and caused most of her hair to fall out. One inmate allegedly told her to "Go hang yourself, Katie, give us all peace".
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Stuart and Linda had bought Katie the sky blue Ford Fiesta she named Chloe, and which she drove while intoxicated. Stuart said he never thought it would happen and described it as a "moment of madness". Linda said the day after she'd been arrested, Katie had to appear in court alone before being reunited with her mum outside who hugged her.
One of Katie's first actions was to write a letter of apology to her victim's parents. Linda said her daughter was "full of remorse" but knew she "had to be punished".
Katie and mum Linda (Daily Record)
Katie was studying in her third year of university when she was jailed (Daily Record)The family say they were told over and over again a custodial sentence was highly unlikely. Glowing letters from university staff and the victim's family pleading for clemency fell on deaf ears in court. Katie admitted to dangerous driving while over the drink-drive limit and was sentenced to two years in prison, reduced to 16 months.
Recalling the sentencing hearing, Linda told the Daily Mail: "Katie turned round to me and said 'help me Mum' as they were handcuffing her and taking her away." She added: "We were told nothing, not what prison she was going to, nothing, she was just literally ripped out of our arms, that's what it felt like."
Linda said their daughter had been a rabbit in the headlights in court but a week later when they visited her in prison things were much worse. "Immediately her eczema had flared up and she was scratching her arms, within a couple of weeks her hair loss started. To see your beautiful 20-year-old daughter's blonde hair fall out in clumps, eyebrow, eyelashes . . . that was hard." Katie was found hanging in her cell having left a brief final note in which she said: "I'm sorry it has come to this. I have let you both down, and Scott as a sister. I loved you very much."
Linda said: "We are not asking for very much, just that prisons in a civilised society are held to account. What happened to Katie could happen to any young person who makes a stupid mistake, a wrong choice, this could happen to anyone's child."
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