SUPERMODEL DRIVEN TO BLACK HOLE OF DESPAIR BY DRUGS

A SUPERMODEL who earned UKP10,000 a day is under sedation in a
psychiatric clinic after having a mental breakdown triggered by
cocaine addiction and the pressures of fame.

The distraught father of Karen Mulder broke the family's silence about
the factors that plunged his "beautiful, intelligent girl into a black
hole of despair".

"It was cocaine and the knowledge her life as a top model was over
that has ruined her life," Ben Mulder said. "She's broken, emotionally
and physically."

Dutch stunner Karen, 33, was one of the most famous figures on the
catwalk in the 1990s.

But for the past three months she has been under sedation in a Paris
psychiatric clinic after suffering a nervous breakdown on a French TV
chart show last October.

She told the audience she and other models had been used as sex slaves
by senior figures in the police and French Government.

She said she had been "fed drugs by evil, vicious men" and admitted
she was once a heavy cannabis user.

She fled the studio in tears. Her allegations were potentially
libellous so the show was never aired.

She has since reported her claims to the police, who have launched an
investigation.

Mr Mulder said: "I am certain cocaine caused Karen's desperate
situation.

"When we visited her in Paris we could see for ourselves.

"Everywhere there were notebooks and writing pads full of her tangled
thoughts and mad ideas. She was accusing everyone and everything. It
was awful to read them.

"She now needs to remain in hospital because she is a danger to
herself."

Mr Mulder said the root of Karen's troubles go much deeper than
cocaine: "It hasn't helped that she has never eaten the way she should
do. Even as a child she used to throw the milk she was supposed to
drink with her meal away in the plants."

Karen is slowly starting on the road to recovery. She is no longer
confined to her hospital bed and has resumed her childhood hobby of
painting.

"I know what she's living through now is temporary. Slowly she will
come to peace," he father said.