A WOMAN found suffering from burns in an armchair in a York street is thought by police to have been deliberately injured, magistrates were told.

But Sharon Lenora Howes refused to make a statement against anyone, despite spending three weeks in hospital with extremely serious injuries, said defence solicitor Craig Robertson.

His comments threw fresh light on a baffling incident in Foxwood Lane which hit the headlines last September.

The Evening Press reported how a van driver had come across the woman slumped in an armchair at the side of the road near shops.

Four people were subsequently arrested, but no one was ever charged.

Mr Robertson was speaking in mitigation yesterday after Howes, 36, of no fixed address, had pleaded guilty to stealing washing powder and two tubes of toothpaste worth £8.67 from Kwiksave on January 25 and breaching a combination order imposed on August 20 for stealing clothing worth £133 from Asda on July 19.

He claimed that she had stolen the items to order because she was terrified of some unnamed people.

People had told her what to do and she had obeyed them out of fear. Mr Robertson also claimed that someone might be taking her benefit money off her.

He said she had had no convictions until April last year.

She was now in severe difficulties, because she had been evicted from her home and was living hand to mouth at the homes of friends.

Magistrates jailed her for 28 days, saying she had given them no option because she had failed to complete non-custodial sentences.

The court heard she had completed one out of the 50 hours' community punishment she had been ordered to carry out in August.

Peter Jeffries, prosecuting, said Howes had stolen the items by concealing them and trying to walk out of Kwiksave and Asda without paying. But staff spotted her and stopped her.

Updated: 11:43 Tuesday, March 12, 2002