THE wife of a convicted stalker has vented her anger after he walked free because of a court blunder.

Karen Ogden says that she is petrified of what Mark Liddle will do next, after a legal technicality gave him back his freedom.

She and her daughter, who is so frightened she has been receiving counselling, say they will now be forever looking over their shoulders.

But Liddle, of Featherstone Grove in Jarrow, South Tyneside, was unrepentant and his lawyer announced that he would be trying to get compensation after ten months behind bars.

The 33-year-old was one of the first people in the country to be convicted under new stalking laws after harassing his estranged wife.

His case was used to form the sentencing guidelines in other stalking cases when he took it to the Court of Appeal in May last year.

At Newcastle Crown Court yesterday, he was freed from custody when it emerged that the restraining order he was jailed for breaching had been out of date.

Liddle was arrested and jailed in July for breach of the order.

Karen, also of Jarrow, said yesterday she was "petrified" of what Liddle would do next.

She described her four-year marriage to him as "four years of abuse".

"I feel petrified because I know what he is capable of," she said.

"My little girl has been seeing a counsellor since last January because of the effect it has had on her."

"I'm constantly looking over my shoulder - my whole family feel the same.

"We think he needs psychiatric help to make him leave us alone.

"I've got no protection. The law obviously needs to be looked at."

Speaking outside the court, Liddle's solicitor, John Lockwood, said: "He has maintained since day one that the injunction was on a time limit and it had passed.