A police chief is bidding to have a serial stalker banned from having any contact with women in Scotland for 30 years.

Tayside Police Chief Constable John Vine is seeking the order against "highly dangerous" Robert Basterfield.

Basterfield, 35, has twice been convicted of terrorising women by confronting them and following them home.

And Mr Vine says he poses an "immediate and high risk of serious sexual harm to members of the public".

The move aims to see Basterfield barred from talking to or contacting any lone female without their express permission until he is a pensioner.

Mr Vine went to Perth Sheriff Court today to have a Sexual Offences Protection Order granted until 2037.

He told the court Basterfield was "capable of using extreme violence."

Basterfield has already been made the subject of an order banning him from being alone with any woman in Scotland.

He is also banned from any "recreational activity" - such as visiting the cinema or a bar - without first gaining permission from his probation officer.

And he has been ordered to undergo sex offender counselling.

The former taxi driver was placed on probation for three years last November after he stalked Victoria Keiro and followed her home.

He secretly followed Miss Keiro for several weeks before chasing her to her front door.

She managed to get away, but Basterfield later wrote to her to "apologise" by asking if she would go to dinner with him.

He had previously been jailed for four months after he followed rugby club waitress Maria Dominguez.

The case, before Sheriff Lindsay Foulis, is expected to last for several days.