A carer who attacked a disabled 93-year-old dementia sufferer on Christmas Day has avoided jail.

Rythma Anupam, 33, lashed out at the frail pensioner and punched her in the face, leaving her in tears, during the Christmas Day attack, which was one of a series of assaults Anupam carried out.

Anupam laughed as she left Paisley Sheriff Court as a free woman on Wednesday after a sheriff opted not to hand down a prison sentence.

She had been facing up to 12 months behind bars and could have been deported to her native Bangladesh for the attacks.

Sheriff David Pender allowed her to stay in Scotland as her husband lives in the country and gave her a community payback order (CPO) instead of a jail term.

The sheriff's decision came after defence solicitor Stephen McGill said Anupam would engage fully with a CPO and attempt "to address her cognitive thinking".

The court heard previously Anupam was supposed to be taking care of the pensioner, who was confined to a wheelchair, on December 25, 2013.

She punched her in the face, pulled her by the arms, slapped her on the arm and pinched and twisted her cheeks, then told a shocked colleague who witnessed the attack: "She was doing my head in."

Anupam denied three assaults on two mentally and physically disabled female pensioners she was being paid to take care of at Wellmeadow Nursing Home in Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire.

She claimed colleagues had conspired to tell lies against her and pointed out that an internal investigation cleared her of any blame.

However, after it emerged no witnesses were interviewed as part of the internal investigation, she was convicted of the three attacks following her Paisley Sheriff Court trial.

The victims were in such a poor state of physical and mental health they need help getting washed and dressed and were unable to give evidence against her.

As well as the Christmas Day attack on the 93-year-old woman, Anupam assaulted her six week later, on February 8, 2014.

During the February attack she pulled the woman by her pants, punched her on the jaw and slapped her twice before laughing and telling a colleague not to report it.

She assaulted another dementia sufferer in October 2013, when the paralysed pensioner was aged 88, slapping her on the face, leaving her in tears and with a red cheek. Police became involved after two fellow carers reported Anupam to care home bosses.

Sheriff David Pender found Anupam, of Pollokshaws, Glasgow, guilty of all three assaults and adjourned the case so she could be assessed by social workers ahead of sentencing.

He ordered her to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work and be supervised by social workers over the next 12 months.

The sheriff said: "Dealing with elderly people can be extremely difficult and can require an enormous amount of patience.

"These are very serious offences but I take account of the fact that you have no previous convictions and have a previously unblemished character. You should realise that this is an alternative to imprisonment.

"If you don't do the order it might put me in a position where I might have to consider imprisonment, but I don't think that will happen."

A spokesman for Care UK said: "We have a zero-tolerance policy towards care that doesn't meet the high standards residents living in our homes deserve."