A WOMAN whose life had been blighted by a 20-year heroin addiction told her solicitor: ‘I hate what I am’.

Blackburn magistrates heard Dianne Caswell needed help more than punishment.

And Andrew Church-Taylor, defending, said he was going to ask the magistrates to give her a chance.

He said: “Through her addiction, she has lost her children, her dignity and her self-respect.

“She has, in effect, lost everything.

“When I spoke to her in the cells, she told me she hates what she is and wants to change.”

Caswell, 38, of Mitton Close, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to six charges of shoplifting and one of obstructing a police officer. She was remanded on bail for the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

The court heard that on several occasions after she had been arrested Caswell had claimed she had taken an overdose and been taken to hospital from where she absconded.