Man weeps in court as he calls dad a monster

The son of a woman allegedly battered during a 14-year campaign of violence claimed he hates his “monster” dad, a trial heard.

Declan Campbell, 20, wept as he told how he no longer speaks with his father Arthur Campbell, 53, following a harrowing childhood where he alleges he regularly witnessed violence meted out to his mother Angela Spiers.

Mr Campbell Jnr told the jury at Paisley Sheriff Court that he was been left bearing emotional scars over what he witnessed in the family home.

Mr Campbell senior denies charges of repeatedly assaulting Miss Spiers, 43, between 2001 and 2015 at the home they shared in Simons Crescent, Renfrew.

He is also accused of holding a sword against the throat of Miss Spiers’ mother, Mary Spiers, sometime in 2006.

He also denies this charge.

The witness, who sometimes refers to his dad as Arthur, told the jury of nine women and six men: “I remember one time he swerved on the wrong side of the road and threatened to kill us because he thought my mum was cheating on him.

“One time, when they were fighting and arguing, she tried to run away - she left through the back door.

“I went out after her and Arthur was dragging her about by the hair.

“He was calling her a ‘slut, slag, cheat, tramp’ whatever - stuff like that.

“He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder and carried her in the house.

“I remember one time hearing my mum screaming as if she was in pain.

“I watched as my dad hit my mum off the couch with the back of her head.

“The phone was on loudspeaker to Tam, my mum’s fiance now.

“Arthur was telling Tam to come to the house or else he was going to kill my mum.

“He was shouting at her, telling her to ask Tam for help.

“I hate him - he’s a monster.” Mr Campbell Jnr added he was around 15 or 16 when he returned home one day to find the front door open - and his mother “lying there, beaten black and blue.”

He added his mum had to go to hospital for treatment for a broken ankle after she was allegedly pushed down the stairs by his dad.

On another occasion, she tried to escape from a bedroom window at night.

When asked what was left of his relationship with his father, having last seen him around five years ago, he replied: “It’s gone.

“I suffer from depression and anxiety because of this - my mind is scrambled.”

However the witness told how he had done a biography on his father for a school project, and he added: “I still loved him but I didn’t think it was good what he done at that time.

“It used to break my heart.” Mr Campbell Jnr’s gran, Mary Spiers, also told the trial she had planned to kill Campbell and had even taken knives to his home to attack him for what he did to her daughter.

She explained: “I had a bag with three knives, a potato peeler and another thing in it.”

The court heard she told police officers who arrested her: “If you let me out tomorrow, I’ll kill him - he’s ruining my daughter’s life.

“I came here to kill Arthur Campbell – I’m going to kill him.

“I’ll do 40 years, I don’t care.” However when the witness was asked if she had ever seen Mr Campbell attack her daughter, she replied: “No, he was too fly for that.”

The trial, before Sheriff Tom McCartney, continues.