A Moray woman has admitted pushing cigarette papers up the nose of a “vulnerable adult” before lighting them.
Alyssa MacDonald, from Lossiemouth, and the man were acquaintances.
However, the 40-year-old took the opportunity to carry out the bizarre attack while he was sleeping.
When the man awoke he found the woman standing over him laughing with blood over his nose on December 1 last year.
Yesterday MacDonald appeared at Elgin Sheriff Court to be sentenced after she pleaded guilty of a charge of assault to injury.
Fiscal Rowena Carlton described the victim as a “vulnerable adult”.
She said the complainer was known to the accused for a number of years.
She added: “The accused was sleeping at the time when woke up to the smell of burning and realised his nose was on fire.
“The accused was laughing when he woke up and advised him that she had placed cigarette papers up his nose and set fire to them.”
The man later went to Elgin police station with an appropriate adult to report the crime.
Defence solicitor Stephen Carty explained his client had committed the strange assault after becoming angered by the man’s behaviour – and confirmed the two no longer saw each other.
He said: “She didn’t intend any serious harm. It could be seen as a childish and immature thing to do but I have to accept that this goes beyond that – Miss MacDonald is an adult and she certainly knows better.
“I can’t hide the fact that she got herself into similar situations last year and she is putting herself in the precarious situation where the court could impose a custodial sentence.”
Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov deferred sentence for six months to April 16 next year to allow MacDonald, of Inchbroom Road in Lossiemouth, to engage with “appropriate services”.