A DISTRAUGHT 15-year-old is being comforted by relatives after her beloved pet cow was stolen - just 18 months after her other heifer was beheaded.

Sinead Donnelly is still recovering from finding Duchess's severed head and the rest of the carcass missing in her uncle's farm field in April 2005.

Police believe thieves stole Lollipop, who was Duchess's companion and mother to a ten-month-old calf, sometime between Thursday, October 19 and Tuesday.

Sinead was too upset to speak last night but her farmer uncle John Goodey said his niece was devastated.

Mr Goodey, who owns Thamesdown Farm, in Elsfield, near Oxford, said: "To lose one to slaughter then the other one stolen, she (Sinead) can't take it. The other one was lost but this one might still have a chance."

He believes Lollipop, who is a pedigree Simmental - one of the top breeds - may have been taken for breeding.

Mr Goodey said: "There were no broken fences apart from one in the neighbouring field. I hope it is not the same people who took her.

"They have taken her 'live', there is no evidence of any slaughter in the field."

He added: "We noticed she was gone on Tuesday. We went down there and the calf was running all around the field going spare looking for its mother."

Lollipop is sandy and white, with straight horns and a yellow tag in each year with the numbers UK283875 and 700007.

Victoria Bartlett, Oxford police spokeswoman, urged anyone with information to come forward. She said: "This is an upsetting incident for the farmer especially after he had a cow slaughtered last year."

RSPCA spokeswoman Sophie Wilkinson said Lollipop could have been stolen to sell on for meat or for breeding.

She said: "A reputable livestock owner would not buy an animal which did not have the right documentation."

Sandra Nichols, senior policy adviser for the National Farmers' Union, said: "It is very concerning to hear of yet another example of crime in the countryside.

"The NFU meets regularly with the chief constables in each county to highlight the problem of rural crime."

Anyone with information about the incident should call 08458 505505.