A violent serial abuser of women has been jailed for life after brutally murdering a vulnerable grandmother he previously threatened to kill and “bodybag”.
Mark Campbell, 37, was found by police in the driver’s seat of his car with his final victim, Jane Fitzpatrick, dead beside him.
Campbell had earlier induced his victim to discharge herself from hospital against medical advice before savagely inflicting head injuries on her with a tyre iron.
Ms Fitzpatrick, 48, was the seventh woman who suffered at his hands during an 11 year crime spree of physical and sexual violence.
A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh ordered that Campbell must serve at least 27 years in prison before he becomes eligible to apply for release on parole.
More than 40 fresh wounds
Lady Poole said: “Our society will not tolerate domestic abuse against women. The sentences the courts impose on abusers must reflect that.
“The murder you committed was aggravated by it being your partner that you killed and by you being on bail at the time.”
The judge added: “Your car was covered with her blood and there was blood on the wall of a nearby garage.”
The judge pointed out that the body and head of the murder victim were covered in injuries, with at least 42 fresh wounds.
Lady Poole said Campbell’s abuse of women started when he was a teenager and escalated over the years before culminating in the murder of Ms Fitzpatrick.
Campbell, formerly of Glenrothes, in Fife, had denied murdering his partner on August 8 or 9 in 2021 at the town’s Cable Road by repeatedly striking her on the head and body with a tyre iron, but was unanimously found guilty of the crime by a jury at an earlier trial.
He was also convicted of a further 13 charges, including rape, assault and abusive behaviour towards women between 2004 and 2021 in Glenrothes, Leven and Kirkcaldy.
Judge praises victims’ courage
Lady Poole pointed out that some victims were assaulted to the danger of life and others were left with permanent marks.
She pointed out that one victim, who was still a teenager with a new baby, had moved to a new country where she did not speak the language as she got away from him.
The judge previously told Campbell that his behaviour had devastated lives and the evidence at his trial was “harrowing and shocking to listen to”. She commended the courage shown by victims who gave evidence of their treatment at his hands.
Advocate depute Chris Jones told the court that Campbell had “an obsession with infidelity” and accused women of cheating on him.
Before murdering Ms Fitzpatrick he subjected her to an abusive course of conduct over an 11 month period between September 2020 and August 2021.
During it he isolated her from family and friends, threatened her, monitored her movements and her social media accounts and damaged mobile phones.
During messages between her and Campbell she said she could not handle another beating and wrote: “Look at the marks all over me for telling the truth.”
In another she said: “You told me to f*** off before you killed me. For telling the truth.” Campbell directed degrading abusive language at the victim calling her “a slut” and “a dirty cow”.
Claims victim was asleep in car
Before the murder she went to the Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, after being sick and unsteady on her feet following a head injury.
Staff were told she hit her head after Campbell had to brake suddenly in the car. Following the murder no evidence of emergency braking was found on the vehicle’s tyres.
Campbell said that after they left hospital they went to an industrial estate in Glenrothes, but she fell and banged her head. He claimed he tried to stem the bleeding and they fell asleep in the car.
He said when he first awoke it was dark and Ms Fitzpatrick was alright at that time. He said: “I looked. She was sleeping. I could hear her.”
He then claimed that he fell asleep again and awoke to find the victim dead and his car door open. He told the court: “Jane was gone.”
He drove off but was found by police sitting in the driver’s seat with his head down. He appeared to have blood on his trousers and fingernails.
A tyre iron was recovered from the Citroen car which was used to inflict repeated blows to the victim.
Evidence from ex-partners
One former partner of Campbell told the court that she referred to him as “a stoner” because of his drug abuse. She said that during a confrontation Campbell grabbed an iron and hit her forcefully in the face with the makeshift weapon.
He also pushed a finger into a healing operation wound in her back and dragged her from a bed during an assault in 2018.
Another woman said that she was thrown down a flight of stairs by him and kicked in the stomach when she was pregnant. Campbell also tried to force drugs into her mouth and forced raw meat into her mouth.
One witness told the court that the treatment she received from Campbell was “horrible, really horrible”. She said: “He hit me a lot. He was verbally abusive to me. He raped me. He punched me, bit me, strangled me. He headbutted me.”
She said Campbell was really aggressive after drinking and added: “He would call me horrible names – slut, bitch, whore.”
She said he was “very jealous, very paranoid” and would search her phone and try to get information that she had cheated on him.
Maintains his innocence
Defence counsel Brian McConnachie KC, for Campbell, said: “He maintains that he did not commit the offences in respect of which the jury convicted him.”
He said: “It seems to be the case that he grew up in an environment where domestic abuse was very much the done thing.”
Mr McConnachie said: “If he is released at any stage, obviously there will be very significant monitoring of him, having regard to the various offences of which he has been convicted.”
Campbell was placed on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely. Non-harassment orders were made prohibiting him contacting or attempting to contact survivors of the abuse.
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