A woman who attacked her ten-year-old step-grandson with a metal studded belt after he left his report card at school has avoided jail.

The 57-year-old, of Dundee, who cannot be named, struck the boy repeatedly with the belt and bit him on the face and body in a sustained attack over a period of several hours.

At one point, the boy pleaded for his life as she told him "I'll kill you".

The woman was given a community payback order with 200 hours of unpaid work.

Sheriff Alastair Brown said: "You were under substantial and acute pressure.

"This is a matter which needs to be dealt with seriously.

"The guidelines make it clear that a significant assault on a child will normally lead to prison.

"Hitting children with an implement of any sort will always constitute assault, whatever arguments there may have about discipline - using implements goes beyond a line.

"Those with the care of children have to take care not to lose control.

"You did lose control - though for entirely understandable reasons."

Dundee Sheriff Court was told the boy and his brother were in the full-time care of the woman because of their parents' drug abuse and the subsequent death of the woman's husband, the boy's grandfather.

On the day of the attack the woman's mother had been taken into hospital and she returned home and started drinking.

When the young boy returned home from school that day she demanded to see his school report card, which he said he had left on his school desk.

The woman responded by calling the boy a "f*****g liar".

Later that night when the boy was in bed, she stormed into his bedroom armed with a metal studded belt, and whipped it across his face.

Fiscal depute Laura Bruce told the court: "She struck him across the body repeatedly with the belt and embedded her nails into his legs and face.

"She left the room and said 'you have another 40 to go'.

"She later returned and assaulted him by punching him on the face and stated 'I'll kill you - I feel like just killing you, I will kill you'."

She added: "During the assault he was telling her he was sorry and she told him 'you're wasting your breath'.

"The accused kept biting him on the forehead and leg.

"At one point she had two hands round his neck while he was sitting upright.

"The boy said 'please don't kill me'."

At around 6am the pair went to bed, and when they awoke she told the child she was going to the police to "turn herself in", and was "traumatised" by what she had done.

The woman pleaded guilty on indictment of a charge of assault to injury committed between June 29 and June 30 last year.