Ryder could face jail term

Hollywood actress Winona Ryder could face more than three and half years in jail if convicted of shoplifting.

A judge ordered Ryder, 30, to stand trial on three charges of burglary and grand theft, vandalism and drugs possession after nearly two days of preliminary testimony.

The multimillionaire star was said to have been spotted by security guards cutting the tags off more than £3,000 worth of stolen goods in the ladies changing room of Saks Fifth Avenue, a Beverly Hills department store, in December.

If found guilty the actress could be jailed for up to three years and eight months. But Ryder's lawyer Mark Geragos claimed his client was a victim of a "conspiracy" hatched between the store and the district attorney's office.

Speaking outside the Beverly Hills court where Ryder was ordered to stand trial last night, he said: "Their whole story is falling apart like a cheap Saks suit."

Ryder appeared in court with her right elbow in a sling after being injured during a scrum with photographers earlier this week.

The actress, who denies the shoplifting allegations, looked perplexed as the judge ordered the trial to begin next week. After her arrest, police found two tablets of the painkiller Oxycodone, a derivative of morphine, in her handbag, for which she had no prescription.