A woman with HIV caused a child to be pricked with a needle and syringe containing her bodily fluid.
At Dundee Sheriff Court, Jacqueline O’Neil, 33, admitted a charge of culpable and reckless conduct.
She admitted struggling with a child and causing the child to be struck by a needle and syringe containing her bodily fluid, while knowing she had HIV.
O’Neil admitted pushing and pulling a child and causing the needle to puncture the child’s skin, to their injury and to the danger of their health and wellbeing.
The child is now undergoing a series of tests to establish if they have contracted HIV.
O’Neil told the court through her solicitor that she was attempting to take the needle away from the child but the Crown claims she was waving the needle around and the child was struck.
Fiscal depute Saima Rasheed said: “The accused was heavily under the influence of something and she was waving the needle about when it struck the child on the hand.”
Solicitor Gary McIlravey, defending, contested the Crown’s version of events on behalf of O’Neil.
He said: “She accepts there was a struggle and during that at some point the child became pricked by the needle but she doesn’t know when that happened because the child did not say they had been pricked until after she removed her hands.
The court heard the chain of events took place on July 27.
Mr McIlravey said O’Neil had been sat with drugs next to her.
He added: “The child saw the drugs and took them to the bathroom and disposed of them by flushing them down the toilet.
“The child then went back to the living room and the woman picked up a pillow case with a capped needle inside it.”
Mr McIlravey said the child asked what it was and was handed the needle and a struggle ensued between the child and O’Neil.
O’Neil claims she removed her hands and it was at that point the child said he had been pricked, but the Crown insisted she was waving the needle around rather than trying to take it off the child.
A notional trial was set for September 5 to debate how the child became struck.
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