A scaffolded hailed as a golf sensation when he was a teen has been jailed after subjecting his partner to nearly two years of controlling domestic abuse.
Jack Meechan, 32, kicked Kirsty Welsh, 31, on the body, ground his fist into her eye, bombarded her with phone, text and email messages.
He threatened to kill her, decapitate her, and slit her chest open.
He told her she wouldn't be able to go on holiday or to nightclubs and threatened to disclose intimate images of her.
Stirling Sheriff Court heard that married Meechan began a relationship with Miss Welsh in January 2019, and the pair lived on-and-off together at her home in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire.
Their relationship ended due to Meechan's behaviour, but he continued to contact her and they sometimes met.
In September 2020 he called her and said, "This is a real threat. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to decapitate you. I'm going to slit the middle of your chest."
In another call he said he had a 56-minute long video of her, including intimate footage.
During another incident he followed her upstairs at her home "acting irrationally and aggressively".
Miss Welsh went into her bedroom, closed the door, and dived under the covers for safety, but Meechan punched a hole in the door, burst through, picked up the mattress, and hurled it against the wall before grabbing the wooden slats of the bed.
He then began "banging the slats together, smiling and laughing hysterically" and telling Miss Welsh, "you're going to die today".
The court heard Miss Welsh was "terrified and frozen with fear".
On another occasion he told her, "You'll no be going on holiday. You'll no be going to nightclubs."
During one argument, he put his fist "forcefully" into her left eye while holding the back of her head with his other hand and then "dragged" his fist down her cheek, causing her to lose all of her bottom eyelashes.
He also telephoned her saying: "I'll hit women, children, man or dog, I am the Meechie boy, I don't give a f***".
Miss Welsh blocked Meechan on all her social media and phone apps after this call.
In July 2021 he "stumbled", apparently drunk, into the home of a female friend of Miss Welsh's in Denny, Stirlinghshire, where she was present at the time.
He searched all the rooms in the house, shouting about her having a new partner.
Police were called about 10.20pm, and found him in the rear garden there, standing on top of an eight foot shed and calling Miss Welsh, who was still in the house, a "trampy s***k".
When he refused to come down, police negotiators were called in.
The court was told that for long periods of time he would appear calm on the shed roof, before starting again to act aggressively, shouting, clenching his fists, and punching his chest.
He was eventually persuaded to get down from the roof at 5.00am, and was arrested.
Meechan, of Denny, who appeared by video link at the court yesterday, pleaded guilty to subjecting Miss Welsh to a course of domestic abuse between May 2019 and July 2021, breach of bail, and statutory breach of the peace.
Defence agent Gordon Addison said Meechan had become involved in an "obsessive" relationship with Miss Welsh, and he had since received help for abuse of alcohol and cocaine.
He said: "He comes from a solid Christian background.
"He has played sport at a high level and has represented his country.
"He was married, he is still married, and his estranged wife wishes to reconcile with him.
"Not all the behaviour which Mr Meechan has accepted was one-way traffic.
"He behaved very foolishly."
Sheriff Keith O'Mahony said: "I can only deal with this by a custodial disposal."
He jailed Meechan for 27 months, and imposed a non-harassment order requiring him to stay away from Miss Welsh for 10 years.
Meechan shot to golfing fame when he was 14, being selected for the Wilson European Junior Team, part of an elite group of five British youngsters who toured Europe.
When at liberty, he now works as a scaffolder.
