A TV soap fanatic who terrorised her ex-teacher for eight years has been jailed for two months.

Disturbed Sarah Durling, 24, was sentenced yesterday (Thursday) after she admitted three breaches of a restraining order banning her from contacting Alison Skinner.

But the Asperger’s sufferer - said to be obsessed with EastEnders - walked free from prison today (Friday) having already served half her sentence.

Canterbury magistrates had slapped the order on Durling in March after she admitted a campaign of harassment against Miss Skinner, who she befriended while a pupil at the city’s Orchard School.

During the eight-year ordeal she bombarded Miss Skinner with letters, phone calls and text messages, saying she wanted to be her daughter and even pretending a baby had died to make contact.

But within days of being sentenced, Durling, of Fallowfield, Sittingbourne, was leaving voicemails at Miss Skinner’s workplace - Connexions in Canterbury.

In the first of two on March 13 she said: "There’s no point getting me sentenced because where I’ll be no cop will find me. You promised me you’d never turn your back on me Ali."

She was arrested on March 16 and admitted making the calls, saying she knew she would get in trouble but did it anyway.

Eight days later the harassment continued, with further text messages and a letter being sent to Connexions.

Durling was arrested and remanded in prison while psychiatric reports were carried out.

Her solicitor Stuart Green said the spell behind bars had given her time to reflect on her behaviour.

He said: "She realises that it would have caused a great deal of distress to the victim.

"She does not want to go back to prison and expresses no desire to contact the victim ever again."