A man who stalked popstar Taylor Swift has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

Eric Swarbrick from Austin, Texas, pleaded guilty to stalking and sending threatening letters and emails to the 30-year-old’s former record label in 2018.

He was sentenced in a Nashville court on Wednesday and will also have to carry out three years of supervised release, a deal he agreed to during his plea last year.

Big Machine Label Group received more than 40 letters and emails from Swift’s stalker, which became increasingly aggressive and violent over time.

Swarbrick also drove from Texas to Nashville to hand deliver the letters on three separate occasions.

Swift is said to have suffered stress and anxiety as a result of his actions and was forced to get a restraining order back in 2018 after she received messages from him threatening to ‘rape’ and ‘kill’ her.

“My fear of violence has continued into my personal life," Swift wrote in Elle last year. 

"I carry QuikClot army grade bandage dressing, which is for gunshot or stab wounds. 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."

Aside from Swarbrick, Swift has also had a man break into her house in April 2018 and had another individual put on ten years probation after he threatened to kill her.