Mark and Lard: the latest weapons in the ratings war

A highly dangerous stalker who ruined the life of a dental nurse with a bizarre campaign of "terrifying" infatuation, could be back on the streets in two years, a court was told yesterday.

Clarence Morris may be prevented from going to Rampton high security mental hospital because of a disagreement among psychiatrists who examined him - one of whom said he was not mentally ill.

Southwark Crown Court Judge Gerald Butler QC, who has already described Morris, from Poplar, east London, as a "danger to every woman" who should be detained at the Nottinghamshire institution indefinitely, said his only realistic alternative would be to send him to prison for five years.

Even if he was jailed for the maximum five years, time already spent on remand as well as other considerations, would mean he would be behind bars for a little over 24 months. Morris, 37, who psychologically scarred Perry Southall, 20, to such an extent that the jury decided it was the equivalent of physical injury, was convicted of common assault and causing actual bodily harm.