A TROUBLED teenager who held a city to ransom during a two-year crime wave is one of the first girls in the country to be given an anti-social behaviour order.

Marianne Cullerton, 17, has run up 99 convictions since 1999, including 42 in just 123 days from last November.

Her criminal antics in Durham City and Chester-le-Street were so prolific that beat officers adjusted their shift times to cope with her almost constant offending.

Following a two-day hearing at Peterlee, magistrates last week imposed the measure, known as an Asbo, after hearing from terrified witnesses who'd been victim to her often violent and abusive behaviour.

During her reign of terror she assaulted shop staff, beat up members of the public, spat at and abused police officers, intimidated Dryburn Hospital nurses and even stalked sales assistants on their way home.

Fed up police applied for the Asbo that will impose measures including a ban on drinking alcohol in the city, entering 18 city centre shops where she is barred, using threatening or intimidating behaviour or inciting others.

The court heard from police chiefs who said they were 'pessimistic' that the order would stop her adding to her litany of shame. If Cullerton, of Front Street, Catchgate, near Stanley, breaches any part of the order she will face a lengthy jail term.

One victim was visibly shaken as she gave evidence from the witness box. Renee Charlton, manager of the city centre Wine Cellar off-licence, told the court that when fixed with an intimidating stare from Cullerton, she feared for her life more than if she had been confronted by a knife-wielding robber.

Suzanne Hanson, defending, said her client's recent progress with the Youth Offending Team would go to waste if she was, as expected, imprisoned after an almost inevitable relapse.

She told of Cullerton's tragic childhood that included moving from her natural parents to a foster home at two months old and allegations of child abuse. Since she was 15 she has travelled to the city by bus, got drunk or taken drugs, then gone on abusive wrecking sprees.

Miss Hanson added: "This order will not help her curb her offending. She needs help dealing with more deep rooted personal problems."

Speaking after the verdict, Chief Insp James McAloon, of Durham and Chester-le-Street police, said he remained 'hopeful' that Cullerton wouldn't breach the order. He added: "She is without question the most persistent female offender that myself or my colleagues have ever dealt with."