A BELFAST man who threatened to "chop up" his ex-partner in a series of social media messages has been jailed for eight months.
Dwayne Mullan (34) also told the woman she was going to be murdered during a two-month campaign of menacing contact.
A judge described it as one of the worst imaginable cases of its type.
Mullan, of Damascus Street in the city, pleaded guilty to threats to kill and harassment.
Belfast Magistrates' Court heard he contacted the victim via WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger repeatedly during March and April this year.
"(She said) he threatened that he was going to slice her and chop her up," a Crown lawyer submitted.
Mullan stated that he had people looking out for the woman, and that she was going to be murdered.
Police were contacted and listened to a number of recorded messages she received.
One of them involved the declaration: "I'm going to rip your face off, kill you stone dead. I'm going to murder you, trust me, I swear on my kid's life I'm going to murder you."
Mullan was arrested in April and admitted the voice on the recordings was his, but insisted that he never intended to carry out the threats.
Defence barrister Fintan McAleer acknowledged the comments were "disturbing".
He told the court Mullan has suffered from addiction issues and depression.
Imposing eight months custody, Deputy District Judge Liam McStay said: "Regardless of what he intended to do, he certainly intended that this woman would be terrified by the horrendous comments he made.
"It's about as bad a case of its sort as I can think of."
