A WOMAN who fantasised that she had given birth to twins then, when

she realised she had not, posed as a nannie to kidnap a baby, walked

from court yesterday on condition she receives psychiatric treatment.

Karen McSweeney was bound over for three years ''for judgment'' and

ordered to have in-patient and out-patient treatment in her native

Ireland with Professor Anthony Clare, the leading psychiatrist and

broadcaster.

McSweeney -- described as living in a world of ''make-believe'' and

suffering a personality disorder bordering on mental handicap -- had

committed one of the ''wickedest acts anyone could commit against the

mother of a six-month-old baby'', said Judge Owen Stable QC at

Snaresbrook Crown Court.

''Anguish on getting home and finding you and her baby gone does

beggar description. You put that lady through the tortures of the

damned.''

As McSweeney struggled to hold back tears the Judge said: ''The

offence was aggravated by the fact that you planned the abduction

. . . and by the fact that at the time you took the baby you were in a

position of trust.

''You had been engaged as the baby's minder or nannie, and were left

alone with the child for the short time to see how you and the baby got

on together.''

McSweeney, 23, from County Clare, Ireland, spun a web of deceit to

abduct Farrah Quli from her home in east London.

The Judge told her she could have been sent to prison. But after

listening to her personal circumstances, he felt he could deal with her

by binding her over for three years ''for judgment''.

The Judge said McSweeney had to be of good behaviour, leave Britain

within 48 hours, and undergo a period of in-patient and out-patient

treatment under Professor Clare at St Patrick's Hospital, Dublin.

He warned her that if she failed to submit to the treatment she would

be brought back to court and dealt with.

She would also have to pay #500 compensation to the child's mother for

jewellery she had stolen.

McSweeney, wearing a smart emerald green suit and with her bleached

blonde hair tied into a French plait, pleaded guilty to abducting the

child from her home in Holland Road, East Ham, in August last year.

Speaking in an almost inaudible voice she also admitted stealing #900

worth of jewellery, some of which was recovered.