GO HANG YOURSELF

Mum tells inquiry into her daughter's death of anquish that left her terrified and exhausted

- TIM BUGLER

A STUDENT who took her own life in a young offenders institution hadn’t slept for three days because of taunts and threats from prisoners, a fatal accident inquiry heard. 

Linda Allan said other inmates locked up in Polmont, Stirlingshire, had told her daughter Katie she “might as well go and top herself ”, and shouted, “Go hang yourself, Katie, give us all peace”.

They also said “the minute she came out of her cell she’d get battered” and called Katie, who had alopecia, “a baldy b*****d, a fat cow and a snob”.

Katie, 21, was found dead in her cell bathroom on June 4, 2018.

She had been sentenced to 16 months in March that year for dangerous driving in an incident that left a 15-year-old boy injured.

The inquiry into the death of the Glasgow University geography student, held at Falkirk Sheriff Court, heard evidence from Linda, 56, a nurse and a former Scottish Government adviser.

Linda recalled how, on her final family visit on the afternoon before she took her life, Katie told her and her brother Scott, then 15, that she hadn’t slept for three nights.

She said: “She didn’t feel safe. She was terrified of the unpredictability of the environment she was in.

“She looked completely different from all other visits. She looked incredibly anxious and absolutely exhausted, she had big dark shadows under her eyes. I could see she’d been crying.

“She took a bit of coaxing to tell me what was going on. She didn’t like to display emotion in the hall.

“Eventually she burst out crying. She was incredibly upset.

“She told me there’s been a huge fight in the hall, which would have traumatised Katie because she’d never witnessed physical violence.