Shared close looked like a ‘murder scene’
Victim told jury: ‘I thought he was going to kill me’
A man caught with a knife in East Kilbride has been jailed for 18 months.
Martin Wilson, 39, was arrested after an alleged incident at a house in the town’s Denholm Crescent on June 27.
He was cleared of brandishing a knife towards Fiona Dall and Desmond McEwan, shouting abuse, kicking a door repeatedly and demanding the return of property.
A jury at Hamilton Sheriff Court returned a not proven verdict on that charge.
The 18-month sentence for illegal possession of the blade was backdated to June 28 as Wilson has been in custody since then.
MIKE MCQUAID
An East Kilbride man is behind bars after a jury convicted him of a “cowardly and horrific” bottle assault on his partner.
Hamilton Sheriff Court heard this week that a bloodstained common close in Netherton Road resembled a murder scene after the attack.
Gordon Campbell, 51, was found guilty of assaulting Tracey Welsh to her severe injury and permanent disfigurement in the early hours of Boxing Day last year.
Ms Welsh told the jury she thought her partner was going to kill her. She crawled out of his flat screaming for help after he hit her twice with a bottle.
The court heard the couple had been out on Christmas Day and argued on their way back to Netherton Road.
Ms Welsh said Campbell hit her first on the back of the head. She heard glass smashing and when she turned round he struck her again on the face.
She was knocked to the floor and crawled to the door and out on to the landing.
She was screaming for help, but it was 3.30am and only one neighbour opened her door.
On seeing Ms Welsh’s bloodied state, the woman screamed and promptly slammed her door shut.
However, someone did contact the police.
Campbell was seen trying to coax Ms Welsh back into the flat, but she was heard saying: “You’ve hurt me too bad this time.”
There was blood on the walls of the close, the banister and even door handles.
One witness said: “The close looked like a murder scene the next day.”
Ms Welsh was taken to hospital where stitches were put in her wounds. She underwent a scan that ruled out a fractured skull.
Summing up at the end of the trial, prosecutor Jennifer McLaren urged the jury to convict Campbell of the “cowardly and horrific” assault.
She added: “Domestic abuse is something that society refuses to tolerate.
“That was not always the case and for years it was said that what happened behind closed doors should stay there.
“However, society and the criminal justice system has moved on.”
Campbell denied attacking his partner, with whom he’d been in a relationship for nearly four years.
He claimed he was asleep at the time of the alleged assault and that she ‘must have tripped and injured herself ’.
Campbell admitted leaving the scene before the police arrived, but his solicitor, Stephen McQuillan, told the jury: “Everybody deals with things differently.
“His partner had accused him of assaulting her, he panicked and went away.”
After the jury’s guilty verdict, Sheriff Daniel Kelly deferred sentence until December 20 for a criminal justice social work report.
Campbell, who had been on bail, was remanded in custody.