The family of a young woman who died following a brutal lashing with a metal dog chain say her killer “shouldn’t be allowed in Fife.”
David Craigie (28) was handed the keys to a council house in High Valleyfield after serving less than four years of a six-year sentence for culpable homicide.
The violent criminal is believed to have fled the village following a campaign by residents and he has since been offered a house elsewhere.
Craigie beat his girlfriend Sonya Todd (21) “unrecognisable” with a metal dog leash during a five-hour ordeal at their home in Methil in 2008.
The drug user was initially arrested for murder but admitted a lesser charge after evidence emerged that Ms Todd’s diabetes was a factor in her death.
The victim’s younger sister Carina Todd contacted this website to say: “He shouldn’t be allowed in Fife at all, especially near my family and especially (near) to my sister’s 10-year-old daughter.
“To the outside world he seems like a respectable person but behind closed doors he’s an evil vindictive bully to women.
“I am sick of people saying he seems nice. At court he smiled when he was sent down for a poxy six years. Is that really the act of a nice caring man?”
Craigie’s sustained assault involved scratching, biting, punching and kicking, as well as a brutal whipping with a metal dog chain. He left so many bruises on the victim’s battered body that pathologists couldn’t count them.
Sonya Todd’s mother, Mary Walton, said: “That monster should live in fear as much as my daughter did. I live each day wishing I was with her.
“I never got to say goodbye as she was that bad. People should be in my shoes then say he should get (another) chance.”
Responding to a comment by a reader who defended Craigie, Carina added: “We were told he wasn’t allowed to be housed in Fife, where we all stay and her daughter she left behind so all of you saying he’s paid his time and should be allowed to stay bolt.”
High Valleyfield Community Council demanded that the local authority move the killer out of their village after members were contacted by frightened families.
Chairman Johnstone Little discussed their concerns with Fife Council’s housing bosses at a meeting in the village on Thursday.
“They didn’t want to say much about David Craigie because he’s been moved,” said Mr Little. “There was a van there earlier in the week taking away all his belongings.
“The whole village is pleased about it. That was the purpose of the campaign to get him out of there and good riddance to him.”
Council housing chief Derek Muir said the meeting was held “to allow Fife Council to hear first-hand the community council’s perspective on local housing issues” but he would not comment on David Craigie.
“We do not publicly discuss individual tenant’s circumstances and are legally prohibited from doing so,” he added.
David Craigie could not be contacted for comment.