A FORMER ambulance service boss who tried to run over his wife and threatened to chop her head off with an axe is allegedly hounding her again after his release from prison, MSPs have heard.
Former Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) manager Grant Gordon was jailed in July for waging "a campaign of terror" against his wife Maureen, Labour equalities spokeswoman Jackie Baillie told Holyrood.
Some of the abuse took place on SAS premises, where Ms Gordon also worked as a paramedic, but no action was taken by the service despite 29 complaints by her union to managers, Ms Baillie said.
Gordon was later released from prison with an electronic tag but has since "been seen waiting for her to show up outside her mother's house and elsewhere", Ms Baillie added.
She has urged Equalities Minister Shona Robison to meet with Ms Gordon to discuss these "failings" by the SAS and the justice system.
The latest revelations in the case emerged during a debate on domestic abuse at Holyrood.
Ms Baillie said: "Maureen Gordon worked for the SAS and so did her ex-partner.
"He engaged in what can only be described as a campaign of terror - he hounded her at work, tried to run her over in an ambulance service car, threatened to chop her head off with an axe and he engaged in a range of other intimidating behaviours, too many to name. Twenty-nine times her shop stewards in the GMB complained to managers.
"Indeed, she lost count of how many times she complained to managers over a two-year period. The result? No apparent action by the ambulance service. She had to take her case to the courts."
Gordon, who had lived with his wife at Moodiesburn, North Lanarkshire, was sentenced to eight months in jail in July this year after the domestic abuse committed between April 2009 and May 11. He was convicted of six charges, including two assaults, following a trial at Airdrie Sheriff Court. He was given a three-year non-harassment order banning him from approaching or contacting his wife, and was fined £500.
Sheriff Robert Dickson also criticised the Scottish Ambulance Service and the former Strathclyde Police force for failing to act upon Mrs Gordon's original complaints about her husband's behaviour.
Ms Baillie told Holyrood yesterday: "Her partner is now out of prison with a tag, having only served a matter of months. He has been seen waiting for her to show up outside her mother's house and elsewhere.
"She appears to have been failed by her employers and now by a justice system that allows her partner to be out and about."
Ms Robison said cases of domestic abuse had risen by 0.5% in the past year to more than 60,000.
Police Scotland has made domestic abuse one of its top priorities, alongside rape which "is now being treated as seriously as murder", she said.
But Conservative justice spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell accused the Scottish Government of offering "platitudes" and failing to take "meaningful" action, insisting the SNP administration is "part of the problem".
Ms Mitchell said incidents of domestic abuse had nearly doubled in 10 years - to 60,000. She said: "In the same time, incidents reported to the procurator-fiscal have risen from 9000 to over 23,000. Rape and attempted rape are also at a historic high, while sexual assaults rose by 3% in the past year."
She added: "Platitudes are not enough, and I'm afraid when opportunities to do something meaningful now to address this travesty of justice are rejected I find it hard to be charitable to this SNP majority government which on this issue has become part of the problem."
The SAS said Gordon was no longer an employee.
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