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.
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