Every single day the parents of Allan Bryant have to live with the unimaginable pain of not knowing where their son is.
Allan was last seen at 2.02am on November 3 2013 leaving Styx nightclub in Glenrothes, less than a mile away from his home.
The 23-year-old was captured on CCTV outside Styx – an image that would become synonymous with his ongoing missing person case.
Eight years on, it is reasonable to ask why those images are the only CCTV the public has ever seen of Allan Bryant on the night he was last seen alive.
The answer to that question makes the Bryants’ suffering even more excruciating.
The truth is that Police Scotland failed to collect the rest of the CCTV footage around Styx.
There is a boxing gym behind the nightclub covered in numerous cameras. There is a snooker hall attached to the venue. It has CCTV too.
But by the time the police belatedly attempted to collect the footage, both sets had been overwritten.
Allan’s parents will never know what clues that missing CCTV may have held, nor how important it might have been in finding their boy.
Bryant family’s complaints are justified
Over the course of the Police Scotland investigation, Allan’s parents have made 12 official complaints to the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner regarding the force’s handling of the case.
Four have been upheld.
Watch our new @thecourieruk documentary on the disappearance of Allan Bryant from Glenrothes in 2013 now.
Allan left a nightclub less than a mile from his home at 2.02am and has never been seen again. His parents are desperate for answershttps://t.co/XHpgaJ3ryO
— Sean O'Neil (@s_oneil88) May 29, 2022
One of the upheld complaints relates to the CCTV that was collected – the footage of Allan’s last known movements outside Styx.
Another reasonable question to ask is why, when time was of the essence, it took seven months of constant pressure from his family for Police Scotland to release those images into the public domain.
Again Allan’s parents will never know if that delay cost them valuable information that could have led to the answers they so desperately crave
No Police Scotland input in Allan Bryant documentary
The Courier has now produced a new documentary about Allan’s disappearance.
As part of it we asked Police Scotland a list of 16 detailed questions about the disappearance of Allan Bryant.
Shamefully, the force not only refused to answer every one of them, they declined an on-camera interview about the investigation too.
Instead the best Police Scotland could do was provide a prepared statement which was short on insight and long on words without real meaning.
Transparency is key to police and other public bodies gaining and keeping the public’s trust.
But in this case, that bond of trust, which should have provided solace to the Bryant family in their hour of need, was broken.
Eight years ago Police Scotland failed Allan and his family.
Sadly, they continue to fail them to this day.
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