PRESS STATEMENT – 1ST FEBRUARY 2024 – PRESS STATEMENT FOLLOWING THE END OF THIS SESSION OF EVIDENCE IN THE JOINT FAI INTO THE SUICIDES OF KATIE ALLAN AND WILLIAM LINDSAY

PRESS STATEMENT FOLLOWING THE END OF THIS SESSION OF EVIDENCE IN THE JOINT FAI INTO THE SUICIDES OF KATIE ALLAN AND WILLIAM LINDSAY

My name is Aamer Anwar-  solicitor acting on behalf of the families of Katie Allan & William Lindsay (aka Brown), this a statement on their behalf:-

“As this session of evidence comes to an end today, it has been over 5 long years since William and Katie’s suicides.

The families are grateful to the Sheriff for the manner in which he conducted the FAI- whilst the families appreciate it will be some time before his Lordship reaches his conclusion, they are also conscious that an FAI by its very nature cannot apportion blame.

For the families of Katie and William, their cries for help went unheard by the Scottish Prison Service, which for decades has operated in a culture of impunity and arrogance.

The Crown office said that there was credible and reliable evidence to pursue a criminal prosecution against the Scottish Prison Service over the deaths of Katie and William, but Crown immunity prevented them from doing so.

John Reilly- the brother of William Lindsay cannot imagine the terror that his brother William, as a boy of 16, must have felt going into Polmont.

Polmont had a duty of care towards William and it was simply not observed. If it had been, he believes that his brother would not be dead.

For John , William’s death caused unspeakable grief to his family, losing not only William, but his two sisters and his mother, all in quick succession.

Whilst we await the conclusions of the Sheriff, the families, over the years has seen little honesty from the SPS.

Death, self-harm, abuse of power are the daily reality of many prisons.

As the suicide rate it has reached a peak in the last decade, the SPS remains in a state of denial, incapable of reforming itself.

There was nothing inevitable about William and Katie taking their own lives, it was clear to anybody that cared to look, that they were vulnerable and at risk of taking their own lives. Today is an important step forward in ensuring a legacy for  all those whose cries for help went unheard. The First Minister Humza Yousaf must now work to remove the archaic principle of crown immunity that gives the Scottish Prison Service effectively a license to kill.”