Gangland shooting victim admits attacking girlfriend in drunken Hogmanay row
07.01.2023 - 08:07
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
The victim of a gangland shooting has admitted attacking his girlfriend during a drunken Hogmanay row. Marc McDermott survived being shot in the back and backside while an innocent bystander was injured and her dog was killed.
A court heard that cowardly McDermott subjected his then partner, Cheryl Fraser, to domestic abuse around the time of the shooting. She told a jury that "traumatic" events had left them "stressed" and people were "fearing for their lives".
McDermott, 30, was on trial accused of breaking mum of four Fraser's ankle, smashing her cheekbone and striking her on the head with a knife handle. But, after she claimed to be suffering "severe memory loss", the Crown accepted McDermott's guilty plea to one assault involving striking her on the head with his hand.
McDermott was shot after being confronted by three masked men near a relative's home in Cumbernauld, Lanarkshire, in January 2020. An innocent 52-year-old dog walker suffered a hand injury and her pet Maltichon dog, Henry, was killed by a stray bullet.
Sources at the time said the shooting was thought to be linked to an underworld feud. McDermott was accused at Airdrie Sheriff Court this week of assaults on Fraser at her home in Cumbernauld between New Year's Eve 2019 and May 2020.
Fraser, 33, was read a statement she gave to police in which she said she was "covered in blood" from a head wound after McDermott hit her on Hogmanay. The statement added that she suffered a broken ankle some months later when he kicked her with "full force".
Fraser, a student nurse, was treated in hospital but told staff she sustained the ankle injury falling downstairs. In her police statement she also claimed that McDermott elbowed her on the face, fracturing her