Police arrested Tamara Rose Donovan, 38, on July 2 when she refused to leave the Village Inn at St Leonards.

The court heard police had been called to the hotel to remove Donovan, who was drunkenly abusing other patrons. In the police car she launched into a torrent of abuse against the two police officers.

''She said: '(the policewoman's) life is in jeopardy. I'm going to kill her and her family,' '' crown prosecutor Alan Hensley said.

Mr Hensley said that at the Launceston Police Station, Donovan spat in the policewoman's mouth and said: ''Sucked in, now you have hep C as well''. ''In less than three months, I swear, you're going to be f---ing dead,'' she said.

The policewoman was cleared of the disease in November after a series of blood tests.

Handing down the sentence in the Supreme Court in Launceston yesterday, Chief Justice Ewan Crawford said Donovan's behaviour was ''disgraceful and disgusting.''

''Police officers put up with a lot, but they should not have to do so,'' he said.

Donovan pleaded guilty to assault, failing to leave licensed premises when asked by a police officer, using abusive language to an officer and threatening a police officer.

She received a three-month suspended sentence and was ordered to pay $90 in Victims of Crime levies.