SHE'S a drug addict and thief who threatened to stab someone with a needle when she raided a city centre shop.

She absconded from a hostel while on probation for that raid, and today she was behind bars after a judge lost patience with her.

But Coraleena Hunter is also a 22-year-old desperate to escape a life of homelessness and heroin addiction.

She lived rough for six months while on the run, and just before she was arrested she came to the Evening Press offices to tell of her desolation.

"I want help," she told us. "I started drugs when I was 12 and have spent my time in and out of secure units since I was 15.

"All my crimes have been to feed my habit. It's not an excuse, just the truth."

Hunter's record for theft and dishonesty began when she was 14.

She told us she lacked family support; her mother died in 1995.

She said inside the criminal was a young woman without hope who knew she faced time in jail.

She was right. Yesterday at York Crown Court, Judge Paul Hoffman told Hunter it was time for her to stand on her own feet.

He sentenced her to six months for breaching the probation order he imposed for the needle raid at a baker's in Shambles, York.

"I gave you a very good chance, as you must recognise," he said.

"The court cannot keep propping you up... there must be a custodial sentence to spell out that the courts won't tolerate breaches."

Hunter's counsel, Nicola Phillipson, told the Crown Court that three months into her probation, she asked to move from Liverpool to be near her homeless brother, who suffered from hepatitis.

But many addicts lived at her new hostel in Leeds, she had her clothes stolen, and slipped back into the drugs culture.

She broke her curfew because she fell asleep on a trip to York.

But the court heard that despite her addiction, she did no burgling or shoplifting while on the run.

Hunter told the Evening Press she had lived on people's sofas or on the street for as long as she could remember.

"I've tried to get off heroin, but when it's all I have in my life, it's almost impossible.

"I don't want to live like this and I don't want to spend my life behind bars.

"I guess people will see me as a no-hoper and think they should just throw away the key.

"But I won't give in and I don't want people to give up on me.

"I know I've hurt people and done things I shouldn't have.

"But I want help now or I will end up killing myself with heroin."

Worried abut drugs? Contact the National Drugs Helpline on 0800 776600.

Updated: 11:19 Saturday, January 05, 2002