Mum of Emily Drouet takes campaign to Holyrood

The mum of a University of Aberdeen student who took her own life says she's fighting to make sure no other family goes through a similar tragedy.

Emily Drouet was a first year Law student, who was found dead in her halls of residence on March 17, 2016.

The initial Police investigation concluded there were no suspicious circumstances.

It later emerged that Angus Milligan, a fellow student at the university, had subjected Emily to a campaign of abuse in the days and weeks leading up to her death.

Last July Milligan, 21, pleaded guilty at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to assaulting her on March 10, 2016 by seizing her by the neck and choking her, pushing her against a desk and repeatedly slapping her to her injury.

He also pleaded guilty to threatening and abusing her over a six-week period between February 1 and March 10, 2016, using abusive and offensive language and of sending offensive, indecent, obscene and menacing texts to her.

Five other charges, including one alleging he attempted to choke her minutes before she killed herself, were dropped due to lack of evidence.

Fiona Drouet, Emily's mother, met with the Further Education Minister last week to talk about new, mandatory guidelines for university staff say they can identify and tackle bullying and harrassment.

She said: "The campaign was set up after losing our daughter, identifying various flaws or inadequacies in the student support system.

"One big thing that we realised is that there is obviously a lack of training with staff, so they're not trained to identify any signs of abuse or sexual violence whether it's physical, intimate relationship abuse, whatever form it takes.

"Our main concern is making sure there is sufficient training in place across all universities in Scotland."

"Unlike in the US, UK universities have no legal obligation or duty to record any crimes on campus, so not only do they not record the crimes but they don't categorise them.

"There is a huge issue of not knowing what issues are on campus and how universities can tackle the issues if they don't know what's happening."

Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, Shirley-Anne Somerville said:

“I am absolutely clear that university and college campuses should be safe places for students to live and to study.

“The Government is totally committed to playing its part in ensuring this happens across all higher and further education institutions in Scotland.

“It was a privilege to meet Fiona Drouet to discuss this further.

"I was very interested to hear her views on the work we are already undertaking to improve the support available in colleges and universities and most importantly what more she believes needs to be done.

"I have invited Fiona to join our work to take this forward."

• Aberdeen