Rapist found with body of Scots gran in car after threatening to 'kill and bodybag'

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A violent serial abuser and rapist was facing a life sentence today for 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 Citroen car with his dead victim beside him.

Campbell had earlier induced Jane Fitzpatrick, 48, to discharge herself from hospital against medical advice before savagely inflicting head injuries on her with a tyre iron.Campbell had denied murdering his partner on August 8 or 9 in 2021 at Cable Road, Glenrothes, in Fife, and claimed in evidence that he had slept through the attack on her when they were in the car.

A jury at the High Court in Edinburgh unanimously found him guilty of the murder and convicted him of a further 13 charges, 12 of them charges of assault and rape involving six other women.The trial judge, Lady Poole, told him: "The jury has found you guilty of serious charges of abusing women and murdering your most recent partner."She said six women were to be commended for their courage to come and give evidence of their treatment at Campbell's hands.

The judge said: "What you did to these women was harrowing and shocking to listen to. Your behaviour has devastated lives."Lady Poole told Campbell there was only one sentence for murder life imprisonment but she was required to set a minimum term he must serve and she deferred sentence on him for the preparation of a background report on him.Campbell began his offending against women when he was still a teenager and subjected them to physical, sexual and verbal abuse before murdering his final victim.