The vulnerable victim of a controlling boyfriend who stood in the last council election has told of her trauma after her abusive ex was thrown in jail.

Andrew Craig, 43 was sent to prison for 27 weeks after admitting abusive and aggressive behaviour towards a woman and brandishing a knife at a teenager while holding his head over a sink.

Craig, of Woodgrove, Dreghorn , stood in the Irvine West ward for the Scottish Green party in the 2017 North Ayrshire Council election.

His former partner, who suffers physical health difficulties and now PTSD through the behaviour, said she felt he should have been caged for longer for his campaign of abuse.

She said: “Twenty seven weeks just feels like a slap in the face after what we’ve been through.

“I went through almost 20 years of being told that I wasn’t good enough and was unfit by him and all these horrible things. He would start fights and throw things and abuse me verbally.”

Craig pled guilty to three charges of domestic abuse, threatening or abusive behaviour and assault at an address in Livingstone Terrace, the Auld Brig pub and elsewhere on occasions between May 1, 2019 and January 22 this year.

As well as behaving aggressively, court papers state he repeatedly threw objects in the house he and his partner shared, repeatedly striking the walls and striking one with a knife and breaking a window with a cup.

Court papers stated Craig would insult his partner during the time of the offences.

He also admitted refusing to allow her to hold a bank account in her own right during this time and arranged for her benefits to be transferred into his own account.

The charge states he also threw a glass or other breakable missile at the woman on an occasion and made threats to harm himself over their domestic arrangements.

Craig also pled guilty to a charge of assaulting an 18-year-old by seizing him by the head and holding his head over a sink while brandishing a knife towards him.

Craig’s defence solicitor previously said his client’s relationship was ‘now over’ and was now a ‘solitary man’, adding he understood he would not be allowed near “anyone’s children.”

However he urged him to step back from prison and put Craig on the Caledonia programme, aimed at addressing domestic abuse, which he said would “re-educate him in a serious way”, added that jailing his client would only work “maybe in the short term” even though “he maybe deserves it”.

Sheriff Michael Hanlon had earlier told Craig he was ‘swivering’ on sending him to custody, adding: “I will allow bail, “but I am not impressed at all”.”

When he returned to court last week, he was given 27 weeks in prison from that day, and also given a two-year non harassment order.

Craig’s former partner added: “Living with him was like when you’re learning about how they lived in a concentration camp – where if you looked at him wrong or said anything wrong he would go off on you.

“He’d have me feeling so useless and depressed. He’d tell me you’re just stupid, you’re unfit, you can’t cook, you can’t clean up.

“He was worse without a drink than he was with a drink – he said he needed that to feel normal.

“Unbeknown to me, one of my friends had previously went out with him and when he found out he immediately stopped letting me have contact with her. He’s always been the same, but he’s always been charming to outsiders.”

“It’s been topsy turvy with COVID-19 but I’ve still had a constant stream of support from Women’s Aid. If I’ve needed someone in an emergency I can just call up the office, and this new woman helping me, she is absolutely brilliant.”