Eric Swarbrick, a man from Austin in Texas, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for stalking and sending threatening letters as well as emails to Big Machine Records, former record label to Taylor Swift, US singer.
Swarbrick was given the sentence by a federal court in Nashville, Tennessee, after pleading guilty during a hearing.
The term of the sentence includes three years of supervised release, which was agreed upon by prosecutors in a plea agreement that Swarbrick entered in 2019.
A compliant filed before the court claimed that Swarbrick sent more than 40 letters and emails to the record label in 2018, asking the company’s CEO to introduce him to Swift.
It also claimed that that the letters became “more violent and sexual” over time.
Swarbrick was also said to have driven personally to Nashville to deliver the letters himself to the record label on three occasions.
He was said to have been arrested during one of his visits to the record label’s premises in 2018 but was later released from police custody after which he had continued with his letters.
Swift had last year expressed concern over her safety amid Swarbrick’s ceaseless letters, with the latter said to have once threatened to take his life if his wish was not granted.
“My fear of violence has continued into my personal life. I carry QuikClot army grade bandage dressing, which is for gunshot or stab wounds,” she had told Elle in 2019.
“Websites and tabloids have taken it upon themselves to post every home address I’ve ever had online.
“You get enough stalkers trying to break into your house and you kind of start prepping for bad things.
“Every day I try to remind myself of the good in the world, the love I’ve witnessed and the faith I have in humanity. We have to live bravely in order to truly feel alive, and that means not being ruled by our greatest fears.”
Source: The Cable
