999 HERO’S SECRET CAMPAIGN OF TERROR
Medic torments ex with anonymous threats of violence.. then consoles her over ‘stalker’
A 999 hero who led a double life as a vile abuser of women is awaiting sentence for tormenting two ex-partners.
Eddie McGarrell told one victim gangsters were sending her sick threats but she believes he was doing it himself.
STALKING victim Pauline Spy lived in terror of a creep who called himself the Big Bad Wolf.
Time and again, her faceless tormentor abused and threatened her by text, telling her he was watching her every move and calling her a “fat cow”.
Once, the stalker simply imitated a ticking clock: “Tic tic tic tic tic,” he told her over and over. “Tic tic tic tic tic.”
He ended another tirade of abuse with: “Lots of love, the Big Bad Wolf.”
The stalker warned Pauline that cars at her house would be vandalised, and they were then attacked with a hammer and covered in corrosive.
She was so afraid that she bought a CCTV system, started carrying an attack alarm and taught her five-yearold to lock himself in an upstairs room if a “bad man” ever came to their house.
In the midst of their terror, Pauline and her little boy were comforted by her ex-boyfriend, former 999 paramedic Eddie McGarrell, 53. He told her gangsters must be texting and calling her from unknown numbers.
But then she began to suspect that there were no mysterious hoods, and McGarrell himself was the Big Bad Wolf.
And she claims that when she confronted him, he began stalking her openly at her home and work.
McGarrell, of Robroyston, Glasgow, led a double life for years, saving lives in his job while mentally and physically abusing females in his private life.
He was finally unmasked last week when he pled guilty to five charges involving Pauline and another ex. He will be sentenced next month.
Pauline, 44, told the Record that as well as the vicious texts, she got anonymous calls where she heard the sound of gunshots.
She said of McGarrell: “What this man put my family, my little boy and me through was horrendous.
“No mum should have to teach their five-year-old emergency drills to lock himself in a room and call 999 if a bad man tries to get in the house. “He instilled terror in our family. “I’m embarrassed that I thought I was streetwise and yet I allowed myself to become a victim of a serial stalker and abuser.
“I walked right into his trap several times over and unwisely trusted him again and again.
“But if my embarrassment prevents him being able to repeat this horrendous behaviour with another woman or family, it will have been worthwhile.”
At Glasgow Sheriff Court, McGarrell admitted putting Pauline in fear between May 2014 and August 2015 by turning up at her work and home and refusing to leave when she tried to end their relationship.
He denied assaulting her on several
occasions, including an attempt to throttle her, between September 2013 and August 2015. Prosecutors accepted his not guilty plea.
McGarrell also admitted assaulting his first partner, a nurse, by dragging her into his car and threatening her between June and December 1995.
He pled guilty to injuring the woman in 2012 by kicking her while she was holding her toddler son. And he admitted to kicking the woman’s daughter in the same year.
McGarrell further admitted causing the nurse fear and alarm between October 2010 and February 2012 by calling and texting her and her daughter threatening to harm himself if she dumped him.
Prosecutors accepted his not guilty pleas to throttling the nurse, pushing a glass into her face, hitting her head off stairs and dragging her by the hair in artacks between June 1995 and December 2001.
A charge that McGarrell drove the nurse around at high speed and threatened to crash into a wall and kill them both in 1998 was also dropped.
The nurse, who asked not to be named, said McGarrell began abusing her soon after they met in 1995. She added: “When Eddie moved into my house, I had a pet cat.
“He would punish me by locking the cat in a cupboard, he would kick her, and eventually he emotionally blackmailed me into handing her into the cat protection home.
“Eddie threatened suicide on many occasions if I didn’t resume a relationship with him. He told my daughter it would be my fault if he died.”
Recalling the incident when McGarrell dragged her into his car, the nurse said it happened after she had a rare night out with friends, and control freak McGarrell reacted by accusing her of having an affair.
“Eddie controlled my every move,” she said.
“I wasn’t allowed to contact family or friends. Eventually all friends distanced themselves due to his erratic and aggressive behaviour.”
There were breaks in their relationship, but the nurse felt she could never be free of McGarrell or move on with her life.
“My stalker was always around,” she said. “He would appear around corners at random times.”
McGarrell was given a suspended sentence in 2015 for threatening and abusive behaviour towards the nurse, and was finally banned from going near her.
McGarrell was sacked from the Scottish Ambulance Service in 2004 for allegedly attacking a member of the public during an emergency call, but claimed he had been unfairly treated.
He continued to work as a private medic at public events, and as a health and safety adviser and taxi driver in recent years.
We tried repeatedly to contact McGarrell but he could not be reached.