A TEENAGE burglar told Judge Kevin Haugh she was "terrified" of her father, who abused her, forced her to miss probation appointments and took her from the Coolmine drug-addiction therapeutic centre.

Laura Kinsella (18), mother of a 3-year-old daughter, told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court she had been abusing drugs since, she was 13 and was now on heroin. She told the court she would "try" to become drug-free for the review of her case on April 11th next.

Judge Haugh said that, if she succeeded, he would suspend the three-year sentence he imposed on her for her role in the burglary of the home of a 72-year-old widow on May 20th, 1996, when property worth £1,500 was stolen.

Kinsella, of Montpelier Hill, Dublin, pleaded guilty to the charge. She had no previous convictions.

Mr Brendan Mulhall, defending, said: "Her father doesn't want her to have anything to do with the probation officers in case she would disclose his abuse of her. He also took her from the Coolmine Therapeutic Centre and has also threatened to do her mother in if Laura continued to go to the Probation Service.

She is absolutely terrified of him."