A former beauty queen stabbed and left for dead by her ex has spoken of her relief that he will serve 15 years in a Spanish prison after losing his last legal battle against his conviction.
Mhairi Campbell, a one time Miss Scotland finalist, said she is relieved William McDonald has lost his appeal and will now be in prison for his full sentence.
McDonald, who stabbed Mhairi three times at her holiday home in Alicante five years ago, took his case to the Spanish Supreme court last month but failed in his bid to have his conviction quashed.
McDonald, from Rutherglen, near Glasgow, went on trial last year at Alicante’s Provincial Court having been detained in Scotland on a European Arrest Warrant and held in Spain since 2018.
He was handed a 14 year, 11 month prison sentence after three judges sided with a private lawyer acting for Mhairi who said his July 19 2017 crime warranted a stiffer punishment.
They agreed 61-year-old McDonald had sought to minimise his victim’s ability to defend herself and increase his chances of hurting her, making him guilty of a crime of attempted murder under Spanish law and not attempted homicide which carries a shorter sentence in Spain.
Mhairi, 61, 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. But now McDonald has no chance of freedom and as Spanish courts don't allow parole or early release he will not be free until at least 2032. He has already served four years inside.
Last night she said: "I received a letter from the British Consulate informing me what happened in the Spanish Supreme court.
"They told me he has lost his appeal and that is final. This means he has no more legal options and must serve his full sentence. He represented himself and is lucky the appeal judges didn't increase his sentence."
"The one positive to come from this is that women should never be afraid to speak up and ensure that justice is done. He stabbed me and left me to die. If my neighbours hadn't found me I don't think I'd be alive."
Mhairi, who is back living in Scotland, said during the attack she was able to calm McDonald down by remembering words her mother used to tell her police officer father when she was a child.
She said: "I come from a family of police officers and I always remember my mum saying to my dad that she talked them down meaning she calmed them and that's what I did with him. I'm sure he wanted to kill me that night and I believe keeping calm saved me."
McDonald was also given a 24 year restraining order which stops him going within 500 metres of his victim.
Mhairi added: "This is finally over. I can get on with my life and I want to show women that it is possible to pick up the pieces after such violence. This has taken years to be resolved and I'm glad it is now done."
Mhairi told the Sunday Mail as she recalled the knife attack: “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.
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