The victim of a serial domestic abuser who hid all her left shoes to trap her in her house has welcomed his sentencing after he was slapped with an ankle tag and curfew.
John McMillan, from Glenrothes, Fife, admitted to abusing three former partners over a 10-year period.
The 38-year-old must now stay within his home address between 7pm and 7am for the next 11-months.
He was also handed a 24 month community payback order with supervision and ordered to complete a domestic abuse work programme when he appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on Tuesday.
Lauren MacDonald, who suffered at the hands of McMillan after meeting him on the Plenty of Fish dating app, has welcomed the sentence - branding it “poetic justice”.
The 36-year-old said: “I’m amazed at the sentence he has been given.
“Obviously I was hoping that he would get jail time but it had made clear to me that that probably wasn’t going to happen.
“Although he had abused other women, this was his first time in front of a sheriff so I couldn’t ask for any more.
“The irony is he hid all my left shoes to keep me in my house and now the courts are keeping him in his.
“There’s so much karma there and it’s almost like poetic justice. His power was always his secrets. No one knew what he was really like.
“My mum and dad are still shocked that I lived five doors away from them when it was happening and they had no idea.
“I know you can ask the police about your partner’s history now and I think that’s great but it doesn’t alway work.
“Up until now, John had no history even though he has been a serial abuser for over 10 years. But on paper, he looked good.
“Now women know what he’s really like and what he is capable of.”
Lauren previously told how she was forced to care for McMillan’s bruised hand after he had damaged it while beating her in 2017.
She eventually plucked up the courage to tell her family what had been happening during a holiday in Jamaica before reporting the abuse to the police.
She added: “I would just tell other women to trust their own instincts. Don’t ignore any red flags that may come up because there’s a reason you’re feeling that way.
“Just because they don’t have a criminal record, doesn’t mean they’re a good person either.”
“I want women to know that they’re not alone because he made me feel that way. But once I told my family, I could never have been more protected if I tried.
“He brainwashed me and made me believe that I wasn’t worth their time and that they didn’t care.”
She has now vowed to continue helping other abuse survivors by volunteering for Women’s Aid.
McMillan was also handed a three year non-harassment order which bans him from trying to contact any of the three women he abused.
Defence solicitor Iain McCafferty told the Sheriff Alastair Thornton that his client had suffered from poor mental health and had his own psychiatric nurse.
He stressed that this was “no justification” for his vicious behaviour towards his victims.
McCafferty argued that a jail sentence would not address McMillan's offending behaviour or the risk to the public of him reoffending.
"He does want to improve his situation," he said.
The sheriff said: "Any custodial sentence would be relatively brief and for that reason I will impose a stringent non custodial sentence with a programme requirement as part of a community payback order, and you will be under supervision for 24 months.
"There has to be a punishment element and that will be a restriction of liberty order. The starting point for that would be 12 months, which I will reduce to 11 months to reflect your guilty plea.
"There will need to be a non-harassment order and if you breach any of these orders you will be facing a lengthy custodial sentence."
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