A BASINGSTOKE doctor had to escape through a window after a mentally unstable patient hit her with a baseball bat and held her prisoner.

Dr Ruth Dyson told a trial at Winchester Crown Court that she feared for her life when the terrifying ordeal unfolded during a visit to the home of Karen Page.

Dr Dyson, who at one stage saw that Page had a roll of silver duct tape in her hand, told jurors: “Crime TV dramas flashed through my mind. I started to fear that not only would I be hurt - I would be killed.”

Page, 47, of Quantock Close, Buckskin, faced charges of wounding with intent and false imprisonment, but was deemed unfit to plead due to her mental health.

However, a jury, instructed to decide only whether Page carried out the attack, found that she had committed both offences.

The court heard how Dr Dyson, from The Camrose Medical Partnership, in Western Way, South Ham, had been Page's GP for two years when the terrifying incident took place on May 14 last year.

She went to Page's house for a home visit at around 1pm, but tried to leave when it became clear that Page wanted to talk about her children that had been taken into care and not her health.

Page had locked the front door and refused to open it, the court heard. The GP said she then tried to open a kitchen window but was told by Page “not to be stupid.”

Dr Dyson told the jury: “By this point, I realised this was something serious.

“I continued to try and talk and reason with her. I thought there was a gap between us so I went to open the window again. I was half on the worktop when she came and dragged me back.

“We started grappling and she pulled my hair. She turned around, then turned back, and I saw she had a baseball bat in her hands and she struck me on the temple.”

The doctor was hit again and bitten on the arm during a struggle in the hall. Later in the hour-long ordeal, the GP was asked to sit in a deckchair in Page's lounge. It was at that point that she spotted Page had a roll of silver duct tape in her hand.

Dr Dyson said she decided to make a dash to the kitchen window and managed to escape. She was later taken to Basingstoke hospital for butterfly stitches to a facial wound.

A jury took less than an hour to decide that that Page was behind the attack.

Judge Jane Miller said further psychiatric reports into Page's “delusional disorder” were needed before any order could be made but told the court: “It is agreed the right order would be a hospital order.”

After the jury had made their decision they were told of a previous conviction Page has for false imprisonment in 1999 which resulted in a four-year jail term.