{"id":527503,"date":"2025-10-25T18:24:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T18:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/527503\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T18:24:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T18:24:27","slug":"edinburgh-vigil-held-for-scottish-people-who-died-in-custody-as-families-plea-for-fai-abolishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/527503\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh vigil held for Scottish people who died in custody as families plea for FAI abolishment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The families of victims who died in custody while in Scottish prisons have urged the First Minister to abolish the Fatal Accident Inquiry system at a vigil in Edinburgh<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The vigil, which took place at Bute House<\/a> at 12.30pm on Saturday, October 25, was organised by the United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC), a UK-wide coalition of families affected by deaths in custody, and coincided with a remembrance event in London.<\/p>\n

The gathering outside the First Minister\u2019s official residence saw families share their experiences of their fights for justice for their loved ones, followed by a lighting of candles, the laying of a wreath and a two-minute silence, reports the Daily Record.<\/a><\/p>\n

A letter to John Swinney, calling on him to abolish the Fatal Accident Inquiry system, increase resources and support given to families, and hold individuals and state institutions accountable was also delivered on behalf of the families.<\/p>\n

Now they are asking the First Minister to meet with them to discuss their concerns in person.<\/p>\n

Sharon Macfadyen, aunt of Allan Marshall said: \u201cLast year families met with the First Minister and he said he was concerned about the number of deaths in custody and the fact recommendations to change things are not enforceable. There have been a record number of prison deaths since then.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government has made some commitments to improve things, but it has not gone far enough. Families still can\u2019t get basic questions answered and can\u2019t access legal aid until years after someone dies. We want to see the FM put his concern into action. We want the deaths to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for<\/b> Edinburgh Live newsletters <\/b> <\/a> for more headlines straight to your inbox<\/b> <\/b><\/p>\n

The letter to the First Minister urged for “justice and accountability, which has not been delivered”.<\/p>\n

In it, they listed their concerns and what they wanted to see changed. It read: “The FAI system is not fit for purpose and should be abolished because it shields state officers from accountability rather than providing it to families.<\/p>\n

“Officers who have been involved in a death must be treated the same way as anyone else. They must be interviewed under caution and not allowed to confer in the aftermath. They must account for their actions publicly. They must be prosecuted where it is found that their actions have caused a death.<\/p>\n

“Individual officers should never be granted immunity from prosecution, and Crown immunity for the prison service should be abolished.<\/p>\n

“Bereaved families should have access to funding for their legal support which is equal to that of the institutions implicated in their loved ones\u2019 death. “<\/p>\n

A memorial quilt was displayed outside Bute House<\/a> during the event, in which each square represented someone who has died in custody in Scotland.<\/p>\n

This quilt was created by the families of Peter Alexander, Jordan Burns, Brian Cathcart, Paul Cowan, Allan Marshall, Mark Hutton, William Lindsay, Lee McKinsley, Christopher Masson, Lewis Spence, Sean McGahey, and Conor McHugh.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s vigil saw the greatest number of families ever taking part, with twelve families attending.<\/p>\n

Join<\/b> Edinburgh Live’s Whatsapp Community here <\/b> <\/a> and get the latest news sent<\/b> straight to your messages.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The families of victims who died in custody while in Scottish prisons have urged the First Minister to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[170965,748,12812,170966,1102,170967,4884,712,170968,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-527503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-allan-marshall","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-bute-house","11":"tag-deaths-in-custody","12":"tag-edinburgh","13":"tag-fatal-accident-inquiry","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-the-united-families-and-friends-campaign","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115436208994136143","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}