Thug who ran over girlfriend and forced her to eat mouse nest must stay in jail

A sinister thug who was jailed after he ran over his girlfriend and forced her to eat a mouse nest had his bid for freedom rejected, leading his victim to call it "the best Christmas present ever".

David MacDonald, 39, who carried out a reign of terror between June 2016 until November 2018, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in August.

Ex-girlfriend Joanne Flanagan, 28, suffered horrendous physical and mental abuse at the hands of her older lover – who launched an appeal after being sentenced at Edinburgh Sheriff Court for 14 charges of domestic abuse.

Aeronautical engineer MacDonald pushed Joanne through a window, forced her to pick up broken glass with her bare hands and tore open stitches on wounds he had caused. He also ran her over, leaving her with metalwork in her body and massive scarring.

The teetotal brute inflicted such extreme violence on Joanne it left her with anxiety, PTSD, depression, flashbacks, insomnia, body dysmorphia, paranoia and an "impending sense of doom".

Joanne had known him since 2013 when he was married to one of her pals, and started dating him three years later after the marriage ended and he moved into her spare room.

The student believes he should be in a psychiatric hospital rather than a prison.

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Joanne said: "It's the best Christmas present ever that he has been denied an appeal. When I read 'the accused has been refused leave to appeal' I was over the moon.

"It's finally over. I was screaming the house down, I was ecstatic. It will have shattered every part of his veneer.

"He is a serial domestic abuser. I went through hell at his hands and it changed me for ever.

"He denied all the charges and was found guilty.

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"Now he has failed again. I have not received anything from this experience apart from emotional and physical scarring."

A jury convicted him of six charges of assault, six charges of assault to injury, one charge of assault to severe injury, one charge of assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement, and one charge of Criminal Justice & Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 Section 38(1), a charge similar to breach of the peace.

Joanne said: "All I seem to read about domestic abuse is drunk men in court for lashing out but it’s not always a chav with anger issues, it’s a posh, professional, family man who plans out his attacks with pre-planned cover stories to tell NHS staff.

In 2018 he forced her to eat a mouse nest as a punishment because he thought Joanne had been secretly eating snacks, which he was also convicted for.

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