Drink drive student, 21, killed herself ‘after being forced to walk around naked in prison’
The family of a student arrested for drink driving claimed she killed herself after suffering bullying from inmates and being ordered to walk around naked, Metro reported.
Katie Allan, 21, was jailed for 16 months after knocking down schoolboy Michael Keenan while over the drink drive limit in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, last August.
The 15-year-old was left bleeding and unconscious in the road but went on to make a full recovery. She drove away from the scene but was caught after witnesses gave her number plate to police.
His family asked the judge not to jail Katie and a report handed to the judge recommended that she should not be sent to prison.
However, she was sent to Polmont Prison in Falkirk where her parents said she suffered so much abuse she started losing her hair.
A friend described her as a ‘sheep in a wolf’s den’ and it was claimed that one inmate in particular would target her, forcing her to hand over her tobacco.
They said that prison staff made her walk around naked as part of a jail training exercise, according to The Sun. A friend said: ‘She was definitely getting bullied. That and the prison environment directly contributed to her ending her life. She should never have been in there.
‘One woman was making her give her tobacco, handing over her stamps, posting her letters for her. She had her scared s***less.’
Even when she was transferred to another prison, Katie continued to suffer from being bullied. Man and woman deny manslaughter of baby who died after 'ingesting methadone' Her parents now want justice following her death in June.
They acknowledge that what she did was wrong, but are angry that she was given a prison sentence despite requests from her victim’s family – who are supporting their campaign – and social services. Her mother Linda said: ‘On my last visit to see her with her brother, we knew something was wrong.
She looked exhausted and hadn’t slept because she was being terrorised and bullied.
‘We flagged this up with two of the prison officers and we now know that, just before she died, they had told her she might be moved to the adult prison.
Katie would have been terrified.’ Margaret Keenan, Michael’s mother, said: ‘Katie was given a sentence we didn’t want and we were all devastated when we read that she had died.
‘Katie had written to us again from prison to apologise for a second time and reiterated that she didn’t know she had hit Michael. ‘The whole thing has been a tragedy for her family.’
Culled from Metro
My view: She did not deserve to die for her crime, she should have been given two years community service, and house arrest with ankle monitor. It is sad that she was bullied to the point of taking her own life. The Prison management failed to protect her from hardened criminals.