Anthony Burstow was given a three-year sentence in 1996 for stalking Tracey Morgan. He was released in June last year.

This time he was able to walk free after the prosecution at Reading Crown Court said there was insufficient evidence to prove that he had again caused grievous bodily harm.

Miss Morgan, formerly known as Tracey Sant, choked back tears as she described how her nightmare had begun again.

"He knows where I'm living at the moment and I will just have to be on my guard and wonder whether when the phone rings or when the post comes will it be him."

Six-year ordeal

Miss Morgan met Mr Burstow in 1992 while they were working at HMS Collingwood in Fareham.

Anthony Burstow is a Falklands veteran

He became obsessed with her and when she tried to end the friendship he began a systematic campaign of harassment against her which lasted for six years.

He bombarded her with phone calls and posion pen letters, bugged her house, stole her underwear and poured oil over her car.

He later moved into a house 500 yards from her home.

Miss Morgan's blames the break up of her marriage and her subsequent divorce on Mr Burstow's obsessive attentions.

Mr Burstow was jailed in a landmark case in March 1996 but his attempts to harass Miss Morgan continued from his prison cell. Letters he tried to send her were seized.

Victim 'very distressed'

After his release, he left her in peace for some months before beginning to pester her again this year.

He sent her a birthday card and was seen hanging around outside her home in Crowthorne, Berkshire, where he was arrested.

Tracey Morgan suffered psychological harm

Prosecution lawyer Paul Reid told the court that Miss Morgan had visited a psychiatrist and that seeing Mr Burstow again had left her in a distressed state.

However, the Crown decided there was insufficient evidence of psychological grevious bodily harm.

Judge Stanley Spence told Mr Burstow: "I want you to do nothing that will in any way impinge on the life of Miss Morgan in any adverse way." Mr Burstow agreed that he would not.

The case against Mr Burstow was ordered to lie on the file.

He faces a further prosecution under the Protection of Harassment Act 1997 which will be dealt with at a magistrates court.