A woman who sent hundreds of texts, letter and e-mails to bank bosses in a 19-year hate campaign has been detained indefinitely in a secure hospital.

Ruby Cooper, 52, sent threatening messages to RBS chairman Sir Philip Hampton warning him "not to go home this weekend" unless he sent her a cheque for £750,000.

She also harassed RBS's chief executive officer Ross McEwan and told his staff an employee was going to be stabbed if she did not get her money.

Cooper told psychologists she had been scammed on her mortgage, and also said she had been harassed by a member of NatWest's call centre staff in 1993.

She had been found guilty of breaking a restraining order and at Snaresbrook Crown Court, judge Martyn Zeidman, QC, made an order detaining Cooper, of London.