'Give me my key or I’m coming through the door’: Car key starts argument between Stenhousemuir offender and ex partner

Jamie Chalmers, 39, referred to his former partner as a “slag” during the heated exchange, after she told him it would not be possible to give him his spare set of car keys while she was on a night out with friends.

Under the influence of alcohol at the time, he stated “give me back my key or I’m coming through the door”.

Chalmers appeared at Falkirk Sheriff Court last Thursday having pleaded guilty to sending grossly offensive and menacing text messages and phone calls to his former partner at an address in Stenhousemuir on July 2.

Procurator fiscal depute Mandy Jones said: “At 5pm the complainer left for an evening out with friends. At 11pm she sent the accused a text message asking for money. The accused agreed to give it to her but asked for the spare key for his car, which had been left at the address.

"She advised him that was not possible and he then became aggressive saying ‘I will smash you and him – that’s a promise’ and ‘I’m coming up the now – give me my key or I’m coming through the door’.”

He also called her a “slag” and other names during the exchange, and she decided to contact police.

The court heard Chalmers had been under the influence of alcohol at the time and expressed “remorse and shame” over his behaviour which stemmed from an “issue over the car key”.

It was stated the couple were supposedly looking to reconcile “at some stage” in the future.

Sheriff Alison Michie said: “You have a significant record for offences of violence and for domestic offending.”

She placed Chalmers, 31 Linlithgow Place, Stenhousemuir, on a supervised community payback order for two years with the condition he attend for alcohol counselling and the Caledonian domestic abuse programme in that time.

He was also made subject to a non-harassment order not to have any contact with his former partner for the next six months.