Fan who sent Dodd dead rat is detained indefinitely

An obsessed Ken Dodd fan who sent the comedian a dead rat and set fire to his house was ordered to be detained indefinitely yesterday.

Ruth Tagg, 35, followed the 71-year-old comic across the country, sitting in the front row at each of his shows, and sent anonymous love letters to him signed "Your secret love".

She sent abusive messages to the his long-term partner and after saying she felt "insulted and rejected" by the comedian, she put burning rags through the letterbox of his house in Knotty Ash, Liverpool. Tagg, from Bedminster in Bristol, was arrested at one of his shows in the Wirral.

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

She pleaded guilty to harassment and arson at Nottingham Crown Court yesterday and was ordered to be detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act. The court heard she suffered from a psychopathic disorder, but a recovery was possible.