The old scandal he caused by punching

[Bassim]

Would you please correct the mistake in my sentence. Is it correct to use "bedevil" in the following sentence?

The old scandal he caused by punching a man in a pub, bedevilled the prime minister during his whole political career.

 

[teechar]

Remove that comma. It's separating the subject from the verb. Use something like "for the rest of his time in politics."

 

[GoesStation]

You can't really cause an old scandal; something caused it a long time ago. You could write The scandal he had caused​ to set the scandal's timeframe in the past.

 

[teechar]

I differ with GS on that one. I parsed "old" as expressing, e.g., familiarity. See entry #4 in the link below.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/old

I'm Under that old black magic called love.

 

[GoesStation]

I differ with GS on that one. I parsed "old" as expressing, e.g., familiarity. See entry #4 in the link below.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/old

I'm Under that old black magic called love.

I'd still use the past perfect.

 

[teechar]

I don't disagree with that. ;-)