THE alcoholic daughter of a racehorse trainer tried to abduct two terrified children as they played with horses at a North Yorkshire riding stables.

Married Chania Burgess also attempted to persuade two screaming young girls to leave with her after she accosted them in toilets close to a police station.

Burgess, daughter of racehorse trainer David Garner and wife Linda, appeared at Teesside Crown Court yesterday to be sentenced for two counts of false imprisonment and two of attempting to abduct a child after pleading guilty to the offences.

Both prosecution and defence barristers described her actions as "bizarre".

The 31-year-old member of the Burgess family, who own an engineering firm in North Yorkshire, was fuelled by drink when she carried out the offences and had no recollection of them.

Stephen Ashurst, prosecuting, said: "This case concerns two bizarre incidents when children in the Stokesley area were confronted by the defendant who imprisoned them or attempted to take them away from their parents or persons in charge of them."

The first offence took place on February 10, last year, when a nine-year-old girl and her 11-year-old friend went to use the toilets in Stokesley town centre, next door to the police station.

When Burgess started banging and kicking on the door of the cubicle the girls opened the door slightly to see the defendant with her trousers down.

The 11-year-old, who was hysterical, ran from the toilets to two passers-by who helped them, said Mr Ashurst.

The next incident happened on May 27, at Emersons riding stables in Kirby, North Yorkshire. Drunken Burgess approached children grooming horses.

She pulled a 11-year-old girl by the hair and grabbed the t-shirt of a boy before dragging them down a path, where they managed to break free and run for help.

Peter Makepeace, mitigating, said his client had turned to alcohol after a traumatic event when she was younger.

She had been comatosed by drink when the offences took place. He said: "When sober this woman is kind and gentle."

Mr Makepeace said there was no logic to her crimes and there was no evidence of any morbid or perverse intent.

She was said to be distraught that her actions had brought shame on the family, who were described as pillars of the community, her husband Simon Burgess and the distress she had caused the children.

Judge George Moorhouse adjourned the case for three months to see if Burgess, of High Street, Great Broughton, would respond to treatment.

He gave no indication of the sentence.

An order was made banning the identification of the children.