Woman jailed after stabbing teenage victim through heart

Nicola Tweed's victim, Zoe Mitchell, 17, suffered a cardiac arrest after the knife attack and had to be resuscitated before an emergency operation.

Temporary judge Kenneth Maciver said a prison sentence had to be imposed because of the seriousness of the offence.

He said a background report on Tweed, who is eight months pregnant, showed that she had had many years of a "chaotic and directionless lifestyle". After the stabbing Tweed, 38, fled from the scene but was detained by police the following day after she called them to her then partner's flat in Leith following a domestic incident.

Tweed, formerly of Cables Wynd House, Edinburgh, was originally charged with attempting to murder Miss Mitchell in the assault at Persevere Court on 13 December, 2008.

But the Crown had accepted her guilty plea to a reduced charge of assault to severe injury and to the danger of life.