Cops sent me back to violent thug to be brutally beaten AGAIN
Paula, 40, lodges complaint over officers
A DOMESTIC abuse victim claims police reunited her with her attacker, hours after she had been beaten.
Paula McNeill, 40, said that despite her showing signs of injury, officers returned David Kerr to the hotel they were staying at and he attacked her again.
A VICTIM of domestic assault claims police asked her to collect her alleged attacker from the cells following his arrest.
Paula McNeill has lodged an official complaint with police, claiming an officer on Mull told her to pick up her assailant because they wanted him “off the island”.
Paula, 40, from Paisley, was on Mull for a Valentine’s break last year with David Kerr, 35, when he allegedly brutally assaulted her.
She claims he hit her head repeatedly off the steering wheel of her car, then beat her in the Isle of Mull Hotel, in a room which he then smashed up.
But she said, despite obvious signs of injuries and witness statements from hotel staff confirming the allegation of assault, police accepted terrified Paula’s denial that Kerr had attacked her.
This was despite his two previous convictions for seriously assaulting a former partner in Wales, which should have been flagged up when his criminal record was checked.
Paula said: “There was clearly a lack of understanding from police of how women react when they are in an abusive relationship. “They basically sent me back to him, to assault me again. I am complaining because I don’t want that happening to other women. That’s how women end up being killed.” One of the previous assaults by Kerr in Wales included breaking into the home of his ex-partner Amy Clarke and strangling her until she passed out. Paula, who had only been with Kerr for six months, knew nothing of the previous assaults. After he was taken to Mull police station, Paula said she was called by officers and asked to bring his medication and pick him up. After saying she had a flat tyre, officers arrived with him at the hotel to collect his belongings and allowed him to approach her and give her a cuddle. Paula claims Kerr then asked in front of officers
why she had bruising on her neck. She was then told Kerr needed money and they watched her hand him her bank card.
Paula said: “The police saw him ask me about my injuries and had me sign a form when I handed over the bank card.
“It was appalling that they let him near me, even if I had denied that he had hit me. If they had kept him in over the weekend and he had appeared in court and been given bail conditions preventing him from contacting me, I maybe would have had a chance to escape.
“Even if an officer had tried to understand the hold I was under, perhaps I would have felt confident enough to co-operate. But I felt abandoned.”
A written summary of evidence from the Crown states staff told officers Paula had entered the hotel just after 11pm, crying and distressed, with a cut on her head, which she had blamed on Kerr.
Paula said they had driven back to the hotel from a nearby bar when Kerr started “ranting and raving”, accusing her of earlier looking at another man.
Last night, she said: “He just kept battering my head off the steering wheel. I could taste blood and feel blood on my face from a cut above my eyebrow. I have the scar and there was bruising behind my ear.”
When Kerr came into reception, he insisted he was calm and Paula agreed to go to their room, largely out of her concern for her pet dog, which was inside.
But she claims as soon as they were out of sight of staff, Kerr dragged her by the hair along the hotel corridor.
The summary of evidence given to lawyers describes how police had noted staff heard him wrecking the room and Paula screaming.
A staff member entered the room and saw him tower over her, yanking her arm as she cowered.
Paula said: “When we were in the room, he had me by the neck, throttling me over the bath and he smashed up the bathroom.”
The hotel manager called police and they asked Paula over the phone if she wanted to make a statement and accepted when she refused.
In the meantime, officers took Kerr away without speaking to Paula.
The next morning, she attended the local hospital’s accident and emergency and medics noted she had been physically assaulted and she was bruised and injured.
Police released Kerr a few hours after his arrest to appear at court in a month. He was waiting for Paula when she got off the ferry at 5pm.
They returned home and he assaulted her in the coming month, which she reported to police. He was charged with offences including pushing her head into his lap, twisting her arm and preventing her from leaving her home.
Kerr pled guilty to the Paisley offences but the court accepted not guilty pleas on all the charges relating to alleged assaults and criminal damage in Mull.
Paula accepts she had refused to co-operate with the prosecution and claims she was coerced by Kerr to complain to police about his arrest.
At Paisley Sheriff Court, Kerr was given a community payback order, which included not being in Paula’s vicinity “other than inadvertently”, as well as compulsory attendance at a Relate Choose to Change programme, alcohol counselling and 275 hours of unpaid community work.
Paula said: ”David is a dangerous man but his violence has not been taken seriously. Will someone have to die before something is done about him?”
Police Scotland said it would not be appropriate to comment on Paula’s complaint.