Convicted killer attacked woman after early jail release

The woman was knocked unconscious by Felix McDonald and detained against her will during the incident in Lochgelly.

Neighbours heard her shouting at a window.

Photographs of her taken afterwards showed injuries including a black eye and bruised chin.

McDonald (38) a prisoner at Perth, denied that on December 2 at North Street, Lochgelly, he assaulted Claire Gill, then his partner, seized her by the body, repeatedly struck her on the head and body, rendering her unconscious, repeatedly seized her by the hair, dragged her and abducted her, locked her in the house and detained her against her will, all to her injury.

The jury found that McDonald was “guilty under provocation” after a trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

Defence solicitor Sarah Meehan asked for her client to be granted bail but this was refused.

Sheriff Craig McSherry remitted the matter in the first instance to the High Court, as his previous sentence is unexpired. He will be sentenced for his latest offence on April 25.

At the High Court in Livingston last August, McDonald was jailed for 21 months but this was backdated to 2015 and he was released in October.

He had slapped, punched and kicked Claire Gill on the head and body and repeatedly threw her to the floor.

He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her from the property in Glenrothes, where the first brutal attack took place, the High Court was told.

He then forced her to walk from the house in Thistle Drive, to her home at nearby Murchison Court.

There, he continued his vicious assault, repeatedly punching and kicking her on the head and body and grabbing her by the neck.

McDonald’s previous convictions include being jailed for culpable homicide in 2006.