A RAGING domestic abuser who slashed his partner in the arm and threatened to cut her head off has been jailed for more than a year.

Douglas Thomson carried out a "violent and sustained" assault on the the 29-year-old woman at his then home in Devonside, Tillicoultry.

The 37-year-old told her she was "leaving in a box" before trying to butcher her with three separate knives.

Despite being stamped on repeatedly, the brave Clacks woman managed to fight him off before alerting the police.

Details of the attack emerged at Falkirk Sheriff Court earlier this year.

The pair had been consuming alcohol throughout the course of the evening before matters soured.

Thomson then became aggressive and violent at around 3am when his ex-partner said she wanted to go home.

Prosecutor Ruaraidh Ferguson told Falkirk Sheriff Court that the argument "became heated" and Thomson seized her by the throat with both hands.

They then fell over the couch onto the floor, where Thomson stamped on the woman's back and leg up to eight times.

He then grabbed her by the hair and dragged her across the room to the kitchen where he retrieved a knife with a nine-inch blade out of a drawer.

Mr Ferguson continued: "He told her he was going to cut her head off."

Thomson threatened to kill himself before then telling the terrified woman: "We're both leaving together – in a box."

According to the fiscal depute, the accused then tried to slash her before "a struggle for control of the knife ensued".

Thomson grabbed a second knife from the drawer and moved towards her, and she put her leg out to stop him.

Mr Ferguson added: "He said he'd chop her leg off."

The complainer managed to push Thomson away, and he fell backwards, dropping the knife behind a radiator.

However, the assault continued as he grabbed a third knife and lunge for her again.

The thug seized her leg, before then slashing her arm, leaving a gash nearly an inch long.

Falkirk Sheriff Court heard that at this point she managed to run out of the front door and call police.

Officers arrived and the Clackmannan man was arrested.

During questioning, Thomson coldly told them: "I just wanted to cut [her] head off."

Thomson, of Woodside Terrace, pleaded guilty to threatening and abusive behaviour and assaulting the Wee County woman to the danger of her life.

During an earlier hearing Thomson was warned that he was likely to face a period of imprisonment.

At the time, Sheriff Craig Caldwell told him: "You carried out a serious sustained violent assault on your former partner.

"There appears to me to be no alternative to a custodial sentence, but a psychological assessment might enlighten the matter if only to the extent of determining its length."

Imposing the 14-month prison sentence last Thursday, Sheriff Craig Caldwell told Thomson: "This was a violent and sustained assault on your then partner, with a weapon, with which you struck her to her injury and to the danger of her life."

Ms Toni Pentecost, defending, said her client would benefit from inclusion in the Caledonian Men's Project violence reduction programme at the end of his jail term.

Thomson showed no emotion as he was handcuffed to a security guard and led down to the cells.