An HIV-infected woman is facing jail after sticking a 12-year-old boy with a hypodermic needle filled with her “body fluids” during a struggle that saw him flush her stash down the toilet.
Jacqueline O’Neil “culpably and recklessly” pricked the youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, with the uncapped needle at her home in Dundee.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard the boy had turned up at O’Neil’s address with one of O’Neil’s relatives.
When they walked in they found O’Neil “under the influence” with heroin and drug paraphernalia in her living-room.
The boy then took the drugs and flushed them down the toilet before returning to the living-room.
A needle was sitting on a pillowcase and a struggle ensued in which the needle was being held.
Depute fiscal Saima Rasheed told the court: “The Crown position is that she was under the influence of something and was waving the needle about whereby it struck the boy on the hand.
“Her version is that she is trying to take the needle away from him when it struck him.”
No information was given about the boy’s medical condition.
O’Neil, 32, of Byron Crescent, Dundee, pleaded guilty on indictment to a charge of culpable and reckless conduct and a further charge of assault.
Defence solicitor Gary McIlravey said: “She accepts the struggle took place and that he was struck by the needle, but what she doesn’t accept is the lead up to how it happened.
“Drugs were seen by the boy and were taken and disposed of – flushed down the toilet.
“At that point he re-enters the living-room and there is a pillowcase with a needle in it.
“He asks what is that and picks it up and the struggle ensues. At some point the boy was pricked.”
Sheriff Lorna Drummond QC deferred sentence until next month for a proof in mitigation hearing.