Judge: 'You were a dangerous menace'

A stalker who sent a dead rat to Ken Dodd and set fire to his house has been detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.

Ruth Tagg, 35, followed the 75-year-old comic across the country, sitting in the front row at each of his shows.

She sent anonymous love letters to him signed "Your secret love".

She also sent pornorgaphic pictures of herself, abusive messages to Dodd's long-term partner Anne Jones and put burning rags through the letterbox of his house in Knotty Ash, Liverpool.

Tagg, originally from Bristol, appeared at Nottingham Crown Court today, where she pleaded guilty to harassment and arson.

The harassment started in January 2001 when Tagg spent hundreds of hours making a tapestry depicting Dodd.

Prosecuter Peter Davies said: "This was clearly from an obsessed fan. Both Ken Dodd and his partner were disturbed by these approaches. In October of that year events took a sinister turn."

The court heard Tagg suffered from a psychopathic disorder, but it was hoped she could recover from her illness.

Sentencing her, Mr Justice Morland said: "You were a dangerous and all too frequent menace.

"Your distorted obsession about Ken Dodd was making him and his partner's lives hazardous.

Published: 21 Nov 2003