IT IS November 1986. An attractive 22-year-old young woman beams enticingly at the judges as she shows off her curvy bikini clad figure. Her long, wavy brown hair falls sexily down her tanned back as she walks proudly with one hand on her hip.

The glamorous young beauty contestant tells the judges of Miss County Durham, a local heat for the Miss England competition, that her ambition is to travel the world. She would also like to meet Nick Kamen, the pop star who infamously stripped to his boxer shorts in a series of TV commericals for Levi 501 jeans.

She can feel the tension mounting as all eyes are on her. This is her moment - a perfect few minutes of undulated admiration. It was only a local competition, but Carolyn Pick felt she was worthy of the Miss World title. At the time, she was a pretty young woman with her whole life ahead of her. Why would she think otherwise?

But her image of herself as a sexy, classy, intelligent woman would stay with her forever, long after the shine on her fantasy Miss World crown had faded.

Carolyn Pick grew up with her two sisters, Eileen and Doreen, at the family's three-bedroom home in a pleasant part of Washington Village, Tyne and Wear.

She was the daughter of a bricklayer, Thomas, and attended St Robert of Newminster Catholic School where, according to neighbours, she had few friends.

After leaving school, she worked as a secretary but always harboured ambitions of being a beauty queen. In her pursuit of the rich and glamorous lifestyle she longed for, she made several unsuccessful attempts to work as a model by bombarding agencies with glamour shots of herself.

To her neighbours, she showed disdain. One who did not want to be named, said: "I've tried speaking to her but she just ignores me completely. I only know her first name because I was curious about who was living next door to me."

Eventually Pick turned her attention away from a beauty career. She managed to hold down a series of steady jobs over the years and, to the outside world, appeared a quiet, conventional woman who kept herself to herself.

But as any hopes of a glittering life ebbed away, she began to dream up ways of fuelling the captivating persona she had created in her own mind. She wasn't a lonely woman whose life was going nowhere; she was attractive and powerful, it just needed someone to realise that.

In 1995, Pick sent that "someone" a notorious photograph of herself scantily clad in a yellow bikini on a beach in Rimini, Italy, claiming she was a fan. The international footballing legend she had targeted responded by sending her a signed photograph of himself.

It was the recognition she needed. Pick soon began bombarding the footballer with more phone calls and letters.

The star was becoming increasingly concerned by her and contacted the police in 1997, but it did not end there. In August 1999, Pick telephoned him, leaving a message to call a fellow player and, because he recognised the area code, he called her back.

Once she had him on the phone it was easy to convey how sexy and how desirable she was, or so she thought. In her mind, she was simply continuing their blossoming relationship and, when he slammed the phone down, she simply called him again.

This time, she claimed she was his wife's sister and, getting angry, threatened to go to the Press with a tape if he did not call her back. Fixated, obsessed, she continued her campaign, desperate to continue their "relationship" by showering him with obscene letters and photographs through the post.

She even sent the Miss County Durham clipping from The Northern Echo - proof of her glittering past - with a special written note: "Am I too hot for you?"

The tapes she sent were yet more proof of her highly attractive, sexy personality or, according to the prosecutor at Newcastle Crown Court Robert Woodcock, her "deluded rantings".

On the tapes, Pick told the star she had visited the town where he lived and had even shopped in his local supermarket. Speaking in her most flirtatious, seductive voice and laughing, she would sing crude songs to well-known tunes, such as the Great Pretender.

When she started talking about revenge, the football star brought in the police again. She told him she had a recording of him talking dirty to her on the phone.

"Let's go over the tape. The one that could ruin your image, your career and your personal life. You did ring me up on November, 1995, at 9.30pm. You said: "I love your photograph in the bikini'," she insisted.

But it was all lies, and the nasty laughing and constant sneers were not the joke she said they were. Even when Pick, 36, was finally arrested and faced trial for blackmail, she still firmly believed the "couple" had had a relationship. She maintained throughout her trial that she just wanted an apology because he had "broken her heart".

With an image to keep up, she turned up at court every day smartly dressed with her trademark wavy hair hanging loosely down her back. She would smile brightly as she posed happily for press photographers on the court house steps.

Inside court, the judge had to warn Pick about her suggestive behaviour when, standing only a few feet away from her "lover", she would flutter her eyelashes and pout her lips.

After seven days, it took only 35 minutes for the jury to find Pick guilty of blackmail. The judge ordered psychiatric and pre-sentence reports.

Reality finally seeped into her deluded mind when she was locked up in a secure psychiatric hospital while awaiting sentence.

In there, there were no illusions. As the existence of Carolyn Pick the "glamour model" lay in tatters, the existence of Carolyn Pick the "weird loner" came to an end