Passing sentence Judge John Morris QC told Murphy, “You were convicted by a jury of crimes which were almost medieval in their barbarity and which would make any right thinking person recoil in horror.”

At the end of the three-day trial Murphy was found guilty of assaulting his former partner Natalie Farrell (27), on May 26, at Dalfield Court, Dundee, by repeatedly threatening her with violence, attempting to gouge out her eye with a metal hook, seizing her by the hair, placing his fingers in her eye socket and gouging out her eye, all to her severe injury, permanent disfigurement, permanent impairment and attempting to murder her.

He was also found guilty that, on the eighth-floor common landing and bin recess area at Dalfield Court on May 26, he assaulted her by pursuing her, threatening her with violence, seizing hold of her, kneeling on her back, placing his hands on her neck, lifting her up and attempting to throw her over the balcony, pulling and detaching her eyeball and throwing it over the balcony, all to her severe injury, permanent disfigurement, permanent impairment, and attempting to murder her.

Earlier in the trial he was formally found not guilty of assaulting Miss Farrell’s current partner Paul Stanton by striking him on the hand with a piece of metal and assaulting Miss Farrell by pushing her, seizing her by the hair, punching her repeatedly on the head and knocking her to the ground and attempting to abduct her by confining her in a bedroom against her will.

In mitigation today solicitor advocate Iain Paterson, for Murphy, told the court, “There is very little that can be said in what is a very serious matter for Mr Murphy. It is something he is having difficulty coming to terms with.

“He was in a relationship with the victim for some years. His emotions became entangled as a consequence of drink and drugs.”

Mr Paterson said all these things came together and he acted in the way he did.

“He will be in prison for a number of years to take stock of what he has done.”

During the trial the court heard Natalie Farrell and her new partner Paul Stanton had mistakenly allowed Murphy into the building.

Murphy pretended to be looking for somewhere to stay, but Mr Stanton said the couple realised they were in danger almost immediately.

Murphy kept moving his hand to his waistband and they could see something metallic. He launched an attack with the hook of a coathanger as the previous bad blood between the two men boiled over.

Seasoned lawyers involved in the case made a point of telling the jury the violence that followed was so unusual and “horrible” it was rare in the Scottish courts. Murphy began the attack with the hook after Mr Stanton escaped and ran for help.

When the assault with the hook failed he used his fingers and thumb to pull out Miss Farrell’s right eye.

She told the court he said, “I am taking your eye out, you ******* cow.”

He was choking her and she briefly lost consciousness. She escaped onto the balcony, but was pursued by Murphy.

As she cowered on the eighth floor balcony Murphy reached out towards her in what was described in court as being like, “brushing away a strand of hair”.

What he did was detach her eyeball and throw it to the street below.

Alerted by screams, a man watching from a neighbouring multi described Murphy trying to lift his former partner over the balcony rail.

The witness told the court he thought it was only because Murphy seemed, “drunk or doped up,” that he failed to succeed.

Miss Farrell told the court Murphy had always said, “if he couldn’t have me, nobody else could have me”.

Jurors were told their task was to determine the form and quality of the assaults, rather than whether the assaults occurred or not and they took just over an hour and a half to return majority guilty verdicts on both charges.

Detective Chief Inspector Shaun McKillop, head of CID in Dundee, said, “We are satisfied with the sentence.”