THE victim of a 2017 stabbing says that she’s trapped at her Costa Blanca holiday home because she cannot afford to return to Scotland.

60-year-old Mhairi Campbell has been at her Quesada apartment for five months awaiting the trial of William McDonald who is accused of trying to kill her.

Mhairi said she has been hit hard financially during her longer than expected stay in Spain.

She added that she has no cash to pay a potential €2,000 Scottish hotel COVID quarantine fee unless she gets an exemption.

Mhairi Campbell told Scotland’s Sunday Mail newspaper that she ‘feels trapped” and is ‘running out of money’.

“I only returned to Spain because of the case, but its got to the point where I cannot afford to return to Scotland,” she said.

William McDonald, 61, is accused of leaving Mhairi for dead after knifing her in the back and leaving her in a pool of blood in July 2017.

Mhairi’s injuries were so severe that she was put into an induced coma on her way to Torrevieja Hospital.

The attack occurred after she refused to help McDonald flee from a previous court charge.

He was arrested ten months later in Glasgow on a European Arrest Warrant and extradited.

He has spent the last three years at Fontcalent Prison near Alicante awaiting trial for attempted homicide.

Mhairi Campbell returned to Quesada in November to give evidence at McDonald’s trial, but nothing has happened so far.

Mhairi suffered a mild stroke last year and says that she has so far paid over €3,000 to Spanish solicitors.

Reports suggest that McDonald’s trial could start in Alicante next month.

“I can only stay in the apartment where the attack happened because that’s the only place I can stay in Spain, “ Mhairi Campbell told the Sunday Mail.

“I’ve had the internet cut off at my East Kilbride home and I’m about to have my electricity disconnected there as well, “ she added.

“Why should I be draining all my finances when I am a victim trying to get home?”

A UK Foreign Office spokesman said that a ‘British woman in Spain is being provided with support and contact has been made with her lawyer’.

A Scottish government spokesperson said: “We have every sympathy with Ms. Campbell but current international travel rules are there in place to limit the risks of importing new COVID cases and variants.”

Subscribe to the Olive Press

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.