A TEENAGE girl sent to a secure hospital for her part in a vicious attack on a Southampton nurse has walked free - after just two months.

The 17-year-old, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was discharged after a doctor could find no signs of mental illness within the first few weeks of her treatment.

Now a Southampton judge, who is powerless to re-sentence the girl for assault and attempted robbery, is calling for an inquiry into how she ended up at the unit.

The girl's 16-year-old accomplice was sentenced to three years behind bars for committing the same offence.

Judge Christopher Leigh QC admitted he would not have made the hospital order if he had known the 17-year-old would be released so soon.

He fears the teenager will re-offend and wants health bosses to review the case.

Judge Leigh had originally sent the girl to the hospital after doctors, including one at the complex, advised him that she was mentally ill.

But another doctor at the unit made a statement to the police several weeks into her treatment that read: "In my opinion she does not suffer from any medical illness and it's questionable as to why she was allowed into this institution in the first place."

The Daily Echo applied to have reporting restrictions lifted on identifying the pair - both from Southampton - during the case but was turned down even though both have numerous previous convictions for public disorder, assaults, burglary, robbery, theft, possessing an offensive weapon and actual bodily harm.

But Judge Leigh will decide whether they should now be lifted in a bid to warn the public that the girl is at large again.

He will make his decision when barristers representing the two girls, who were put behind bars for three years, can both appear at court.

They both denied charges of assault and attempted robbery last Boxing Day on Myre Ortege, but were found guilty in May.

The nurse was jogging to Southampton General Hospital to start a shift when she was chased, pinned against a wall and hit on the head by the girls.

They left her unconscious in the middle of Coxford Road, Aldermoor, after finding she had nothing worth stealing.

Southampton Crown Court was told how the ordeal left Miss Ortege so afraid she could no longer do evening shifts and had to be accompanied while walking to work.

Judge Leigh, at the city's crown court last week, said he was disturbed by the contradictions between the two doctors' accounts of the 17-year-old's state of mind.

He added: "If I had known she was going to be released so soon I certainly would not have made the hospital order. Once the order was made I had no further control over the case. I will send the papers in this case to the local health authority and ask them to consider investigating this case."

The 17-year-old was detained at the Huntercombe Maidenhead Hospital in Berkshire two months ago. Det Sgt Tony Mizen of Shirley CID, which investigated the attack, said: "Our thoughts are with the victim."