A Dundee man who racially abused his girlfriend and terrorised her while she was pregnant with their daughters has been jailed for 20 months.
Kenneth Macmillan, 41, was locked up for repeatedly assaulting Shiree Afzal during a four-and-a-half year campaign of domestic abuse.
The court was told Macmillan attacked the 26-year-old in front of mutual friends during a Hogmanay party and bombarded her with messages calling her “fat and ugly” after they had split up.
The offences were committed between May 2010 and September 2014 at properties in Dundee as well as in Paisley and Erskine.
Ruling it was the only “appropriate disposal”, Sheriff Colin Pettigrew, sitting at Paisley Sheriff Court, sentenced the abuser to 20 months behind bars.
As he jailed a shell-shocked Macmillan, the sheriff slammed him for his “repeated physical, verbal and psychological abuse” of Ms Afzal, branding his treatment of her “appalling”.
Macmillan, of Craigowan Road, Dundee, was originally facing trial on 17 domestic abuse charges.
But he accepted his guilt after defence solicitor Gordon Ritchie struck a deal with prosecutors which saw Macmillan plead guilty to seven of the charges against him in exchange for the other 10 being dropped.
As a result, Macmillan admitted assaulting Ms Afzal, threatening her, bombarding her with messages, and breaking his bail conditions by contacting her.
The court heard the couple met on an internet dating site in November 2008 and moved in together in 2009.
Defence solicitor Terry Gallanagh said Macmillan had shown insight into his disgraceful treatment of Ms Afzal and accepted that he needed to learn how to act appropriately while in a relationship.
Following sentencing, Ms Afzal insisted she felt “100% safer” now that her ex-partner had been imprisoned.
She said: “The relief I felt in court when he got sentenced.
“Just that someone believed the situation as he had tried to make out that I was crazy.”