A woman battered unconscious by an ex-partner was not found until two days after the shocking attack in her own home in Fife.
Angela Connelly was discovered bloodied and bruised and with a black ligature tied round her neck.
Ms Connelly told a trial she was left unconscious on her kitchen floor after the brutal assault by Paul McMullan on Friday, January 22 last year.
She managed to crawl upstairs to her bed.
Alarmed her house had been in darkness all weekend, her niece who was staying nearby found her on the Sunday.
McMullan, whose Facebook page states he served in the Scots Guards “guarding Buckingham Palace”, had claimed Miss Connelly swung a knife at him during an argument.
He said as he put his arms up in self defence, she fell and struck her head on a living room radiator.
However, accident and emergency doctor Victoria Francois, who assessed Miss Connelly later that night, said the injuries she suffered on both sides of her face were consistent with “multiple blows”.
Injuries recorded in her medical notes included a black left eye, bruising to the forehead and neck and a laceration behind her right ear.
Photographs of extensive injuries to Miss Connelly’s face were shown to jurors at Dunfermline Sheriff Court this week.
Multiple trial witnesses, including a police officer who was called to the property, told jurors they saw dried blood on the kitchen floor when they entered the property on the Sunday afternoon.
A jury took only about 30 minutes on Thursday to unanimously find McMullan guilty of the assault charge, following a three-day trial.
Following the verdict, it was revealed McMullan has a number of previous convictions for domestic abuse.
Sheriff Susan Duff adjourned sentencing until May 5 for the production of a background report and McMullan was remanded in custody.
‘Black material’ tied round neck
Miss Connelly told the trial McMullan “showed up” at her door in Dunfermline’s Carnock Road and let himself in to use the toilet, before she felt a “huge blow” to the back of her head.
The 40-year-old said she next remembered waking up in her kitchen some time later and crawling upstairs to her bedroom.
She described feeling like she “had been in a car crash.”
Miss Connelly’s niece, Coady Bell, told the court her aunt “thought there was chocolate on her face” when she woke her up but it was actually dried blood.
Miss Bell said the back of her aunt’s ear was split and that she had a piece of “black material” tied round her neck to the point her skin was severely swollen.
The 23-year-old also said she recalled hearing her aunt and McMullan arguing on the Friday, while she was outside having a cigarette.
Both Miss Bell and another person who went to the house – too young to be named – told the court they saw dried blood on the kitchen floor when they entered through the back door.
The younger witness said they could see blood over Miss Connelly’s face and her eye had swollen and purpled.
Police found dried blood
Police constable Joanne McKee, who was called to the property that afternoon, also told the trial she saw blood on the kitchen floor and on the bedding upstairs.
The court heard McMullan, whose address on court papers was given as a prisoner at HMP Perth, had been a best friend of Miss Connelly’s brother and he has been known to her family for many years.
McMullan was found guilty of striking Miss Connelly on the head and body, causing her to fall to the ground and, by means unknown to the prosecutor, repeatedly striking her on the head and body leaving her unconscious, and tying a piece of material around her neck.
He also previously pled guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by uttering threats of violence towards two police constables at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital on January 25 last year.
Sentencing for both offences are scheduled to take place on May 5.
