MARGARET and Jim Watson thought their 16-year-old daughter Diane would
be safe at school. Their Dennistoun tenement flat overlooks the
playground of Whitehill Secondary where Diane was a bright and popular
fourth-year pupil.
On April 10, 1991, in a horrific playground incident, Diane was
stabbed by fellow pupil Barbara Glover. Diane's friends carried her home
but already she was beyond help. She died soon after in her parents'
arms.
The death of a child is particularly hard to bear. It contravenes the
natural order. When that child is the victim of murder it is doubly
difficult to comprehend or accept.
In July, 1991, after an emotionally charged trial at the High Court in
Glasgow, Barbara Glover, aged 15, was found guilty and ordered to be
detained without limit of time. After the trial the Watsons and son Alan
sought to pick up the pieces and mend their shattered lives.
Then, nearly 18 months later, on Saturday, December 5, 1992, tragedy
struck for a second time when Alan, aged 16, took his own life.
Mrs Watson says: ''I cannot begin to describe the despair and
suffering that we endured from the day that Diane was killed. Our
friends and relatives, the school staff and the wider community in
Dennistoun have sought to give every help and comfort to us but some
members of the media have been so cruel and insensitive that they have
caused us nothing but additional hurt and sorrow.''
When Alan died in his bedroom at the family home he was clutching
copies of articles written about his sister's death. One was from the
magazine Marie Claire and the two others were from The Herald, written
by columnist Jack McLean.
Mr and Mrs Watson are convinced that these articles played a major
part in their son's decision to end his life.
''Jack McLean may want to reflect on the fact that when Alan took his
life he had in his hands articles which Mr McLean had written. His
articles, and that in Marie Claire, contributed to the terrible
depression which Alan was suffering from after his sister's death.
''I would hope that in future he and the Marie Claire journalist, Meg
Henderson, would think more carefully about their actions and that they
would realise that when they write they do so about real people who have
real feelings,'' says Mrs Watson.
Jack McLean, in his two columns, and the magazine, in an article
headed ''British Children Serving Life Sentences'' in which the names of
Diane and Barbara Glover were changed, sought to highlight the situation
in Scotland whereby child murderers are detained without limit of time.
Margaret and Jim Watson are in no doubt that the treatment of their
daughter's death in both publications amounted to a campaign which
sought to blacken Diane's name and which displayed insufficient regard
for the victim and her family.
''I look upon these articles as an attempt to blacken my daughter's
name. Additionally, in August, Jack Mclean wrote an article which
implied that our daughter had looked upon her murderer with snobbish
disdain and that Diane regarded herself as being better than her.
''What he actually wrote was 'Diane came from a background which was
rather upper working-class. For years this class element determined that
young Barbara was something of an object of the kind of snobbish disdain
that occurs within the working-classes. Diane had the smart white socks
of the daughter of the labour aristocracy'.''
This has infuriated Mrs Watson. She declares: ''Mr McLean, in his
articles, often tries to make a great deal of his working-class origins
and the article he wrote about Diane is no exception.
''Those who know my husband and I also know of our working-class
origins but we feel that our social background is irrelevant in the case
of our daughter's death. No parents, regardless of social background,
should have to suffer the loss of a child but it might be helpful to
know that I was brought up in the Gorbals and my husband was brought up
in Easterhouse.
''We both left school at 15. On the week Diane died my husband's
take-home pay was #75 and I was earning a small living as a school
meals' attendant. I wonder how Mr McLean can call people such as
ourselves 'the labour aristocracy'?''
Mrs Watson adds: ''Diane was never snobbish. It was an important part
of her upbringing that she treated everyone with respect. Given that her
father had been unemployed for two-and-a-half years she would have been
the last person in a position to look down on anyone.''
Mr and Mrs Watson have taken great pride in the fact that since
Diane's death her school has honoured her memory by instituting the
Diane Watson Memorial Prize.
Mrs Watson says: ''Diane was a hard-working student and at weekends
she worked in a shop from which her earnings helped supplement the
family income. She was also involved with pre-vocational training at a
local hospital and I have references to the effect that she carried out
her course with distinction.''
Following publication of the articles, the affair was aired in the
House of Commons where the Labour MP for Springburn, Mr Michael Martin,
was highly critical of Jack McLean. Criticism was levelled, also, at the
magazine and an interview it carried with Barbara Glover -- or Jean as
she was called in its article -- said to have been conducted in the
Kerlaw Detention Unit in which she is held. Scottish Office Minister
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton and Strathclyde region social work
department have said that no interview took place.
Marie Claire magazine, in the current issue, asserts that the
interview with Barbara Glover took place only after permission was
received from Strathclyde region's social work department. However, the
council social work department has maintained that no interview took
place. Permission was granted for access to the unit but, because the
inmates are minors, they were not in a position to permit interviews
with individuals.
In an exchange of letters between Mr McLean and Mr Martin, the MP
accused the columnist of writing in an ''ill-informed'' manner.
Margaret Watson says: ''I am totally bewildered by Mr McLean's
assertions that he based his articles on discussions he had with
professional people involved with my family, including doctors and
teachers when, in fact, my GP and all the teachers at Whitehill
Secondary School have given written testimony that they did not enter
into discussions with Mr McLean. None of my neighbours has spoken to the
press.''
Margaret and Jim Watson were especially angered that McLean, in his
letter to the MP, had commended the Marie Claire article and that he had
not contacted them before writing about the affair. ''He certainly
didn't give either myself or my husband an opportunity to speak.''
Mrs Watson adds: ''I feel that Mr McLean's insensitivity knows no
bounds. On the day of Alan's funeral he wrote a further article
attacking Michael Martin and Lord James Douglas-Hamilton. He accused
both MPs of hiding behind parliamentary privilege. Contrary to Mr
McLean's assertion that these MPs would deny people, expecially
journalists, free speech, Mr Martin gave me a voice in Parliament.
''Our lives have been further ruined by insensitive treatment such as
this. We have never sought to get our names in the paper. We have always
been a hard-working and respectable family and I just hope that no other
family has to endure the suffering that we have gone through.''
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