TV vet Trude Mostue's serial stalker is facing life in jail unless he can be cured, a judge has said.

John Maynard rang the star of television's Vets in Practice at work and asked her: "How would you like your vagine slit?"

The star killed the call, which came in on an emergency line and she told police that she was very worried by it.

Maynard, 55, had numerous convictions in England and Germany for terrorising women and he served a five-year sentence in the 1990s for making a threat to kill.

He was released from prison in May 1999 and within months he was making shocking calls to women, including Trude.

Maynard rang her Bristol practice on April 14 last year claiming to be a friend. He told her colleague, Marie Love, who picked up the mobile: "She will know who it is when she hears the message.

"If when I meet her I will harm her."

Trude took a call from him on May 19, but quick-thinking she asked: "Who shall I say is calling?"

Construction worker Maynard, who worked for years in Germany, replied "It's Richard, it's a personal call."

She realised it was not a normal emergency call for the practice so she said: "If you want to speak to her you can call between 9 and 6.30 on Monday. She does not take personal calls within the practice."

Then Maynard said: "Do you mind if I ask you a personal question? How would you like your vagina slit?"

Shocked Trude finally reacted: "You should be aware that all phone calls are recorded by police."

Maynard then put the phone down.

He was arrested on October 31 making a phone call from a public box in King Square, York. He matched a CCTV video still of the caller.

From York, he pleaded guilty at Teesside Crown Court to five charges of harassing Trude and four other women including a Miss Cleavage entrant, a managing director, and a shopgirl who sold him a new outfit.

He admitted putting Trude in fear of violence by harassment between April 13 last year and May 20.

A psychiatrist says that Maynard can be cured, said Dan Cordey, defending. The judge Recorder, David Robson, QC, directed that the doctor should appear before him at the next hearing.

The judge said: "These are offences of the gravest in their category.

"There is no doubt that without psychiatric treatment this man will continue to be a serious danger to women because although he has not physically damaged anybody he has caused enormous mental stress and alarm.