A tattooed muscleman was jailed for two years last week after he battered his young girlfriend so badly she thought she was going to die.

Gary Brodie, 42, terrified Laura Keir to the point where she grabbed the blade of a knife he was threatening her with and pulled it from his grip with her bare hands.

Earlier he'd punched Laura, 23, choked her, and threatened to kill her.

Sheriff William Gilchrist, who was shown pictures of Laura's battered face, told Brodie: "This was a sustained and serious attack on your former partner which resulted in her suffering a number of injuries. Custody is the only appropriate sentence."

Last Wednesday Stirling Sheriff Court heard that Brodie had stormed round to Laura's home in Broomridge, Stirling at 1.15am, high on drugs, and hammered on the door.

Miss Keir, who was asleep in the house with her children aged one and six, woke up and let him in.

Brodie, obsessing that she had been cheating, demanded her mobile phones, punched her on the mouth and face, and followed her upstairs when she fled to her bedroom to escape him.

There was no lock on the bedroom door, and he was able to force his way in and attack her again.

Prosecutor Sarah Lumsden told the court: "He continued to punch her to the face, causing her to fall to the ground.

"While she was on the floor he placed both hands round her neck, causing her breathing to become restricted."

As she frantically tried to get him to release his grip, he told her: "I'm going to f*cking kill you."

Miss Lumsden said: "She genuinely thought he might."

Brodie then released her and went downstairs and picked up a kitchen knife.

Shouting threats he brandished it at her, saying: "I'm going to put it right into you."

Miss Keir grabbed the knife by the blade with her bare hands and pulled it from its own handle, throwing it aside onto the kitchen worktop.

The court heard that before the incident began, Brodie had confided in a mutual friend that he was going to go round to Miss Keir's house to "discuss" things.

While the attack was going on, the friend had been trying to contact Brodie, and, getting no reply, drove round to Miss Keir's house to check she was okay.

When Miss Keir heard his car pull up, she ran outside, "covered in blood", saying "he's just battered me".

The friend drove her to Stirling police station, and cops went round to Brodie's home in the city and arrested him, still wearing a t-shirt stained in Miss Keir's blood.

Officers found Miss Keir's home was also "stained with blood".

Miss Keir was found to have "numerous" injuries, including a haemorrhage to the right eye, a four square-inch bruise on her right cheek, a burst lip, marks on her chest, cuts on her foot, and marks on her neck indicating partial strangulation.

Brodie, of Stirling, a father of three, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault to injury. The incident happened on November 26 last year.

Greg Cunningham, defending, said Brodie was under the influence of cannabis and unidentified tablets at the time, having received information from friends claiming that Laura had been unfaithful.

Of the attack, he said: "He appreciates the emotions that may have been going through Miss Keir's head, not only at the time, not only now, but also for time eternal."

In addition to the two-year jail term, Brodie was made subject to a 12 month supervised release order and a non-harassment order banning him from contacting Laura or going near her house for three years.

The court heard that Brodie had done time for violence before, having been jailed at the High Court in 1996 for six years after admitting assaulting two police constables to the danger of their lives by repeatedly driving a stolen car at their car.

The High Court in Glasgow was shown a video of police chasing him at speeds of up to 110mph on the M8, and scenes of Brodie crashing into three police cars to avoid arrest.

That incident also involved a woman. Ian Donaldson, defending, claimed Brodie had an argument with his girlfriend and was moving out when police first spotted him.