VIOLENT DONUTS OUT ON A TAG

Campaigners lash out over thug’s short sentence

A MILLIONAIRE thug who delayed his prosecution for domestic violence for more than three years is to be freed from prison after serving less than a year of his sentence.

Frankie “Donuts” Donaldson, 59, will be released just over eight months after he was sentenced to more than two years in jail for his crimes.

He will be fitted with an electronic tag and released from HMP Dumfries today, prompting criticism from campaigners and politicians.

The early release comes weeks after MSPs passed the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill, which creates a specific criminal offence of “abusive behaviour”, targeting coercion and control.

Dr Marsha Scott, chief executive of Scottish Women’s Aid, said: “It is unmistakable in our view that court process, outcomes and sentences that perpetrators face for egregious acts of domestic violence in Scotland do not match the country’s public commitment to address the problem. “The number one priority needs to be the implementation of our new domestic abuse law. But that will need the support of sheriffs and court staff and their proper understanding of domestic offences.”

Details of Donaldson’s domestic violence saga feature in a new book, Acid Attack: A Journalist’s War With Organised Crime, by Russell Findlay.

He was first arrested in December 2013 but his prosecution was marred by repeated court delays known as “churn”.

Prosecutors eventually agreed a plea deal allowing him to admit nine of 16 charges of violence and threats against his ex-partner Jane Clarke and her sister, for which he was sentenced last June.

Labour’s justice spokesman Daniel Johnson MSP said: “Both victims and the wider public deserve to know that perpetrators will be properly punished.”

Donaldson was the victim of a “targeted” knife attack in Cumbernauld last April and, four months later, was slashed at HMP Low Moss in Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow, in an attack thought to have been ordered by an Edinburgh gangster.

The new domestic abuse law will need the support of sheriffs and staff MARSHA SCOTT