It is time to leave Lavinia Kerwick alone. Hers is a tragic story, a young woman whose life was traumatised by rape and who is now in the grip of anorexia nervosa. Tabloids love tragedies, and Lavinia's story is certainly that. But it is almost impossible to find any merit in splashing photographs of her as a haunted and emaciated figure and reporting her weight to be 1 1/2 stone, as the Irish Star did on Thursday.

The week after Christmas is usually a quiet time for news. It can be a struggle to find a front-page story. But on New Year's Day the Star appeared to be well prepared, splashing the photographs of Lavinia outside and in. The emotive pictures and emotive words were a horrible exercise in cynicism.

Is this preoccupation with Lavinia's condition just morbid voyeurism? It would seem so. The Co Kilkenny girl has featured on more than one occasion recently. One wonders what weight she will need to be to make the front page next time?

Contacted yesterday, the Star's editor, Gerry O'Regan, said he had no comment to make on the New Year's Day lead story.

The Irish Eating Disorders Association reports that on Thursday night its telephone was "ringing off the hook" with parents of other anorectics saying they were terrified their daughters would now "have a new weight to aim for" or of the impression that rape may lead automatically to anorexia.

We know that Lavinia Kerwick is exceptionally brave. She was raped by her then boyfriend on New Year's Eve five years ago and spoke out publicly when he was given a suspended sentence after pleading guilty. After that rape she began to limit her eating, and has been a sufferer of anorexia nervosa for some time.

An anorectic is psychologically vulnerable, caught up in a lonely world where control is all important and denying the body food is the only way she knows to keep things in control. According to medical experts, those in the grip of this awful illness lose the ability to keep things in perspective.

To others an anorectic's condition is startlingly obvious, but the sufferer's brain simply refuses to register that fact, and the starvation continues, sometimes until death.

The problem of eating disorders is a growing one which certainly deserves to be written about. Bodywhys, an organisation for people with anorexia (self-starvation) and bulimia (binge eating and vomiting), estimates that there are at least 9,000 people, mostly women between the ages of 14 and 20, with such problems in the State.

The media have certain responsibilities to deal with the victims of this condition sensitively and not to exploit them for sensational stories. In this case these responsibilities are being callously ignored. The story was followed up by the Evening Herald and by the Examiner yesterday.

"I've had the last rites a few times now and I don't want the disease any more," the Star quoted Lavinia as saying. She says her New Year resolution is to continue with treatment begun before Christmas in hospital. Everyone must wish that she does. But how can Lavinia, down to what the Star reports is 1 1/2 stone, suddenly stop in the glare of the public eye?

In her mind her identity must now be bound up with her eating disorder. Were she to stop and gain weight she would no longer be worthy of news. A self-justificatory editorial spoke of Lavinia's bravery and how "we all owe a debt of gratitude to a brave young woman for giving up her privacy to speak out about the impact of rape".

Such severe anorectics, according to medical opinion, because of their mental and physical condition generally are not able to make rational decisions. A defence that she wished to be featured would not be justified because of her condition.

For someone with anorexia life is entirely caught up with reaching a certain weight goal, and, as one person involved in treating people in this area explained, "they do not have the energy to create the thoughts required for rational thinking". This is why it is so irresponsible to continue to print photographs of her deteriorating state.

"How could someone possibly give up anorexia with all the positive reinforcement of it from the media?" said Dr Elizabeth Cryan, a consultant psychiatrist who specialises in eating disorders.

"I don't know Lavinia, but it is the worst thing that can happen for someone in this condition. If she starts to gain weight the publicity will vanish and she will no longer be a person worthy of that attention. . . This sort of thing is a very cynical exercise, setting down a further block to stopping being anorectic."

According to a psychologist, Donna O'Connor of the Irish Eating Disorders Association, publishing Lavinia's weight is exceptionally damaging to others with anorexia.

"They look at it and see it as a benchmark, thinking they can be `the best worst case'. Anorectics learn from each other. What worries me now is that to get herself into the newspaper again she will feel that she has to bring it lower."

John O'Riordan is a nurse/therapist at the St Francis Centre in Crumlin in Dublin who also specialises in this area. He believes that "the message from the Star that someone can survive at 1 1/2 stone is a disastrous one to be giving out".

"To someone with anorexia food means putting on weight. The buzz from weight loss turns into an addictive process which they cannot stop without outside intervention. They have a poor opinion of themselves, poor body image, low self-worth. But the one thing the anorectic does know is that she has a body which she can change. She tells herself: `If I lose a stone I will feel good', so she does it and she feels good."

However, that feeling does not last for long, so she wants to lose more to get that feeling back, so that begins the cycle of weight loss.

"The anger that started it all has not been resolved, so that will resurface as well as the guilt for what is going on. In the end the message keeps repeating: I must eat less, I must eat less. To an outsider an anorectic looks incredibly thin, but in their mind's eye they have an image of themselves as being like the Michelin man."

He believes that chronic anorectics who are below a minimum body weight, who have stopped having a monthly cycle, or who are beginning to lose muscle fat, need to be hospitalised in order to recover enough physically to regain their mental capacity. "Once that happens they can then reflect with their therapist on their self-worth."

Let's leave Lavinia alone. The healing process is a long and private one.