A MOTHER and her boyfriend, who attacked a drug user after the woman's son cut himself on a discarded syringe, have been ordered to carry out community service.

Tracy Steele, 28, admitted she snapped after her six-year-old son, Richard, cut himself while playing near his Newcastle home.

The mother took him to hospital and he underwent an HIV test, which proved negative.

Two days after the incident, in January, she and her boyfriend, Shaun Cresswell, kicked down the door of a drug user who they believed had discarded the needle, and hit him.

At Newcastle Crown Court this week, the pair were each ordered to carry out a 100 hours community service by Judge Gerard Hawkins after they admitted affray.

Yesterday, Steele, of Gibson Street, Battlefield, Newcastle, who also has a five-year-old son, Ryan, said: ''I was out of my mind with worry when it happened.

''I knew I had to be punished and I shouldn't have taken the law into my own hands. I have learned my lesson.

''I would rather be with my sons than do something like that again and go to jail.''