Inside the 'emotional' victim accounts of a Scottish serial abuser who faked his own cancer diagnosis

Scott Fraser carried out a campaign of terror against multiple women over decades, using an elaborate web of lies to manipulate and defraud them.

He invented a tragic back story to make women feel pity for him before taking their money and turning to violence.

On Monday at Chester Crown Court, Fraser was sentenced to 27 months imprisonment and will have to serve at least half of that sentence behind bars.

Fraser, from Aberdeen, had been faced down in court by his three ex-wives, his estranged adult daughter and his ex-partner at an earlier sentencing hearing in Scotland.

He pleaded guilty to assault by beating on January 15 this year and intentional strangulation on June 30 in an attack on a woman The Scotsman has agreed not to name. She expressed her relief he was finally off the streets.

Fraser initially pleaded not guilty to the crime of strangulation, only changing his plea on the first day of his trial in June, forcing the woman through the trauma of coming to court believing she would have to give evidence.

The victim said: “I feel relieved that he is being punished finally by a prison sentence as the journey he has been on has affected so many women and families. I hope that this result helps to safeguard any future women he may get involved with and sends a positive message to those who are going through a similar experience.”

She went on to thank the Crown Prosecution Service in England for “believing and backing me and all the other women involved to have the strength to stand together”.

Fraser had been living with the woman in an English village near Chester, where he moved to after being arrested and charged with the kidnap of a woman in Aberdeen whom he conned out of £50,000.

After becoming increasingly abusive, the 57-year-old lost his temper one night after a restaurant meal at the fact his victim had not signed his name on a birthday card.

Fraser, who is 6ft 5in, grabbed her and throttled her for two-and-a-half minutes before finally letting go.

But this was not the first of his crimes. He had also been convicted of domestic assaults in 2015 and 2016, as well as the Aberdeen attack last year on businesswoman Debbie McFarlane.

Ms McFarlane had been approached by Fraser on social media and he bombarded her with messages.

They finally met in person in 2018 and she said she was moved by his heart-breaking backstory. On their first date, Fraser cried as he told her his former wife had killed James, their six-month-old boy, in a drunken car accident.

He showed her a tattoo of James’s date of birth and death and another in tribute to his dead brother. Neither James nor the brother existed.

During the pandemic, Fraser moved into Ms McFarlane’s flat and she supported him financially. When he told her he had prostate cancer, she paid for him to have private treatment.

He would scam her out of tens of thousands of pounds during the course of the relationship before finally, in January 2021, he became physically violent.

Fraser locked the door of the Aberdeen flat, took a knife from the kitchen and threatened the 54-year-old, seized her phone and held her prisoner in her bedroom for five hours.

His former partner Helen O’Connor, whom he blamed for the death of his infant son, contacted Mc McFarlane. There had been no baby, no car accident and she was Fraser’s third wife.

Ms O’Connor’s father was the late comedian and TV presenter Tom O’Connor and said she she believed Fraser targeted her for her money.

Fraser had first married a woman in Aberdeen, but the relationship broke down around 2000 and he moved to England.

He quickly met and married his second wife, who had been prepared to give evidence in support of Ms McFarlane before Fraser’s guilty plea. That marriage ended in 2009.

Ms McFarlane ended up in contact with all of the ex-wives and adult daughter, who, to her horror, laid out his catalogue of crimes spanning the 22 years from his first marriage.

At Aberdeen Sheriff Court last year, Fraser was given a community sentence.

Ms McFarlane said: “I am extremely grateful that finally justice has been served, albeit not a long enough sentence. I was never prepared to let this go and I am proud that I carried this through to the end.”

The court on Monday heard victim impact statements from the woman at the heart of the English case - one from January this year and one from July. Fraser’s victim said she had experienced “sleepless nights” despite being prescribed sleeping pills from her doctor.

The woman told the court how she had been very confident previously, but now had a camera door bell installed at her home and felt scared walking from her car to her front door at night.

She said she wondered constantly: “Is he following me?”

In the statement read to the court, she said: “His history of abuse spans 22 years. That's all I want is for him to be stopped. Furthermore, this is the man I let into everyone's lives. My daughters have suffered emotional trauma.”

In mitigation, Fraser’s solicitor said he had been through traumatic experiences when he was aged 12 and 16, which have had long-lasting effects on him. Fraser claimed in mitigation that he was drinking four to five nights per week.

His lawyer, Jo Maxwell, told the court he had little memory of strangling his victim because he had been so drunk.

Ms Maxwell said her client was “embarrassed” and “ashamed”, adding that in October 2024 he had lost his engineering job and become homeless.

Judge Simon Berkson noted Fraser had carried out the second domestic abuse offence while on bail awaiting sentencing for the Aberdeen offence. He told Fraser his behaviour was “disgraceful”.

Ms McFarlane said she wanted to thank all the other women who came forward. “We were all united,” she said. “This has taken several years to come to fruition and a lot of effort from a lot of people.”