Katie was ‘target for strip-search torment’
A STUDENT who killed herself in jail was forced to parade naked in front of guards, her parents claimed yesterday.
Linda and Stuart Allan said daughter Katie, 21, was targeted for stripsearches and was so distressed she lost 80% of her blonde hair.
They also said prison staff failed to notice self-harm marks all over her body despite seeing her in the nude.
Linda said: “The searches were supposed to be random or intelligence-led.
“But it always seemed to be her, maybe because she was polite and would not complain. She was an easy target.”
Katie, who studied geography at Glasgow University, was jailed for 16 months in February after pleading guilty to causing serious injury while drink-driving.
But she took her own life at Polmont young offender institution, Falkirk, in June. Linda, 51, said Katie was terrorised by other prisoners, but told her she could not report them because she was “frightened of the officers too”.
The last time Linda saw Katie she had been unable to sleep for three nights. The mum said: “Katie had been bullied and was in clear distress. She’d lost her hair.”
Katie hit jogger Michael Keenan, 15, in her car and left him unconscious in the road on August 10 last year.
Her parents accept she deserved punishment, but raised questions over her legal representation and the court case.
The Scottish Prison Service said it could not comment on the claims ahead of a fatal accident inquiry.
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