POLICE have urged a terrified woman to build a panic room - because they are powerless to protect her from the sinister sex offender who has stalked her for nine years.

North Yorkshire Police have offered victim Mandy Dunford £5,000 to secure her home after a judge ruled her stalker - former military historian Ken Ward - could return to his house less than 200 metres away.

Ms Dunford, a former policewoman, last night made a final appeal to officials to prevent convicted sex offender Ward from moving back to his remote hillside cottage.

Ward, 67, spent nine years exposing himself and performing sex acts in front of Ms Dunford in the lanes and fields around their properties near Chop Gate, on the North York Moors.

When Ward was finally jailed in 2011, police and prosecutors recommended he should not be allowed home, however Judge Peter Armstrong has ruled that he could return to his dilapidated cottage when his sentence ends next year.

A sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) was issued ahead of his return to stop Ward approaching his victim, but an error on the first version meant he would be able to enter Ms Dunford's garden.

This was changed after the mistake was realised, but the sex offender will still be able to stand within a few feet of her front door.

Ms Dunford is so scared of what Ward will do when he comes back that she is making preparations to move out.

The 54-year-old blames the judge's decision to allow Ward home on prosecutors, who she says failed to convey the seriousness of the case and challenge defence claims that the offender's family had lived in the remote cottage for centuries.

Ms Dunford claims prosecution barrister Richard Bennett was also unaware that another woman gave a statement to police reporting that Ward had exposed himself to her in the 1970s.

Ahead of Ward's return, police have offered Ms Dunford £5,000 to improve security at her home.

As well as recommended she gets CCTV cameras installed, officers have suggested she uses the money to install a safe room where she can take refuge if necessary.

But she said: "The key issue is that he's allowed to return home. What quality of life supposed to have with him living next door not knowing what he's going to do next?

"Not only have they allowed him to move next door, they have allowed him to come within a few feet of my front door - it's unbelievable.

"If police are offering me a safe room, they must think I have something to worry about."

She added: "The defence said this poor man wanted to live his dying days in his ancestral home which he's been in since the 15th Century - the judge was nearly crying by the time his barrister had finished.

"I'm in a desperate situation and I need some help. Please can someone stop this man from coming home."

Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Ken McIntosh, from North Yorkshire Police, confirmed the force believed Ward posed a risk Ms Dunford.

He said: “We absolutely empathise with Mandy’s current situation and the fact that she lives in fear of Ward returning to within metres of her home. He still poses a risk to her, which is why North Yorkshire Police applied for the Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) to include an exclusion zone preventing him from going within five miles of Mandy’s home.

“However, the court ruled that Ward should be allowed to return to his home and amended the exclusion zone to reflect this. We have since done everything we can to look at how we can apply to amend the order, including taking advice from a leading barrister with extensive knowledge in this area to look at every possibility. Unfortunately, and understandably worrying for Mandy, at this stage there is nothing further that we can do in law."

The Crown Prosecution Service rejected Ms Dunford criticism, saying in a statement: "Mr Bennett is a highly experienced barrister and we do not accept he had insufficient knowledge of this case.

"In court both the prosecution and the defence make representations, as happened in this case, but the judge makes the final decision."