A former beauty queen has been left terrified after her violent ex, who left her for dead in Spain, requested to be repatriated to Scotland to serve the rest of his jail sentence.
William McDonald, from Rutherglen, Glasgow, tried to murder Mhairi Campbell by stabbing her three times at his holiday home in Alicante six years ago.
The 63-year-old put the one-time Miss Scotland finalist through hell when he appealed his conviction at the Spanish Supreme court last year but failed in his bid to get it squashed. Now Mhairi has learned that he has asked to be moved to Scotland to serve the rest of his sentence here.
McDonald has been held in Spain since 2018 after he was detained in Scotland on a European Arrest Warrant before being convicted and handed a 14-year and 11-month prison sentence. He has around 10 years left to serve inside.
Mhairi, 62, told the Record: "It's very traumatic. When I got the news, I said you've got to be kidding me. Alarming bells were going off in my head straight away. The thought of him being in Scotland is quite scary. He is a very manipulative man.
"I saw that man twice in court, the way he looked at me sent shivers down my spine. He is not finished with me yet. He needs to be kept away."
McDonald has been held in Spain since 2018 after being handed a 14-year prison sentence for trying to murder Mhairi.
She spoke of her relief when McDonald lost his legal case to change his sentence to attempted homicide last summer but has now been plunged into a state of emotional turmoil after learning of his transfer request.
She added: “I received an email from Spanish prosecutors informing me he was trying to get back to Scotland. I contacted Police Scotland because I am so scared.
“Officers then came to my home to say they will do everything they can to protect me.”
Mhairi previously told how she begged McDonald to help her after realising he had stabbed her in the back, side, and arm as she went to leave his home following a row. She claimed her attacker fled the apartment and she was only saved when a neighbour came to her aid.
She met McDonald through a friend and was in a relationship with him for six years before the attack in July 2017.
Mhairi previously told the Sunday Mail about the knife attack.
She said: “I was right at the door when I felt something very cold hit my back. I fell to the floor. Then he stabbed me again, in the arm. That was when I realised the cold sharpness I felt was the knife.
“I kept begging him to get me help. I told him I’d tell the police it was an accident but he still said no. So I asked him to go, told him to run – anything to get him out of the apartment. Eventually, that’s what he did. As soon as he was gone, I started screaming for help.
“He said he’d call an ambulance from a pay phone but he never did. My neighbour saved my life. She heard me and called for help.”
Retired department store account manager Mhairi, who needed emergency surgery after the attack, made the Miss Scotland finals in 1978 and later moved to Hollywood to work as a nanny for a film producer.
A spokesperson for Police Scotland said: "The movement of prisoners would be a matter for the prison agencies, however in relation to if there would be any police involvement in such cases, we would not comment on these matters or any individual cases."
A Scottish Prison Service spokesperson said: “We do not comment on individuals.”
A spokesperson from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said: "We are supporting a British national who was arrested in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities."
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