An HIV positive woman who jabbed a 12-year-old boy with a needle filled with infected bodily fluids has been jailed.

Jacqueline O'Neil pricked the youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, after he had flushed her drugs stash down the toilet.

At Dundee Sheriff Court on Thursday, the 32-year-old was jailed for 16 months after she previously pleaded guilty on indictment to a charge of culpable and reckless conduct and a further charge of assault.

The boy had told the court at an earlier hearing O'Neil was clearly under the influence of drugs and was surrounded by paraphernalia when he found her in the living room of her Dundee home with a syringe stuck in her leg.

He said he had taken a foil wrap containing heroin and flushed it down the toilet. The boy said O'Neil had started waving a needle at him in response, which ended up hitting him on the hand.

The accused claimed the boy had "fabricated" the events. She said the youngster had been handed a needle by another adult and as she tried to get it off him, it struck his hand.

Sheriff Drummond told O'Neil: "This is a very serious charge. You put the boy's health at risk by your reckless conduct. It is a very serious matter indeed. You accept none of this would have happened if you were not involved in drugs.

"You disputed how he came to have this puncture wound - but I had no difficulty believing him over you.

"Given the very serious nature of your conduct and the serious danger he was put in only custody is warranted."

The court heard the boy had suffered no ill-effects as a result of the incident and had not become infected.

Defence solicitor Gary McIlravey said: "The public perception of her is she is some kind of monster.

"She was assaulted in the street by two women - she is easily recognisable. The stigma of this offence will stay with her for some considerable time.

"Had she not let her lifestyle decline to the extent she did this would not have happened."