A 28-year-old woman has shared how her abusive partner, who is now behind bars, made her eat a mouse nest.
Warning: Distressing content
David MacDonald, 38, from Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland, physically and mentally abused Joanne Flanagan for which he was sentenced to jail for four-and-a-half years and hit with a 15 year non-harassment order last month, reported Edinburgh News.
The aeronautical engineer once pushed Flanagan through a window then made her pick up the broken glass with her hands, reported Daily Star.
At one time, she tried to appease him and leaned into the window of his car to try to kiss him. She said, "He was still in gear and took off, as he took off I said 'oh my God my foot's there - he ran me over, I was on the ground under the car, my body was under the tyre." He told her that he hated her and then he raced off.
The two had known each other since 2013 when he was married to one of her friends, and got romantically involved three years later once the marriage ended.
Flanagan called him a true danger as he is able to hide his true self, and he isn't just a domestic abuser, but a "psychopath." MacDonald controlled every aspect of her life, including how she dressed and her finances, during the relationship from June 2016 till November 2018.
In the final year of their relationship, he made her eat a mouse nest as a punishment as he thought Flanagan had been secretly eating snacks. Once he attacked her and tore open a recently stitched wound that he had caused, and now the scar is so unsightly and it makes her feel self-conscious.
Meanwhile, MacDonald has applied to appeal against his sentence and conviction. After being notified about his intent to appeal, she said that she cannot believe they’d ever let him go and the thought of him back on the streets terrified her. She hopes the appeal court realizes how dangerous the man is.
She said in a victim impact statement that she had been left suffering "anxiety, PTSD, depression, flashbacks, insomnia, body dysmorphia, paranoia and an impending sense of doom" after being tortured by MacDonald, whom she described as a "self-obsessed manipulator."
