By Adam Everett Kit Roberts
A prisoner brutally assaulted his cellmate by throwing a kettle of boiling water over him while he was asleep. Danny Smith carried out the brutal assault at HMP Altcourse after an argument over using a vape, leaving his victim in agony. Smith, who has dozens of previous convictions, was placed into a shared cell despite warnings against the practice, and claimed that his victim was “going to kill him”, the Liverpool ECHO reports . Join the Manchester Evening News WhatsApp group HERE In a hearing at Liverpool Crown Court a judge urged Smith, of no fixed address but originally from North Wales, to look for mental health support “for his own sake”. Smith and his cellmate Paul Guest “fell out” after Guest refused to allow Smith to use his vape. On July 27 2023 he woke up at 2.30am on the bottom bunk in “intense pain” after the attack. Prosecutor Sarah Gruffydd said that Guest subsequently saw Smith pressing an emergency alarm by the cell door and screaming “he’s going to kill me”. The pair then had a scuffle inside the cell, with Guest realising he “had been swilled” when he saw a kettle on a table on its side, with traces of sugar around it. As a result of the assault Guest suffered scalding to his left arm and neck, and would be treated at Whiston Hospital for “light scarring” on his upper arm, as well as a perforated eardrum causing hearing difficulties. Prison officers arrived at the cell, where they stopped the fight. Smith then told guards that he had assaulted Guest, saying it was “because he wouldn’t let him use his vape”. Andrew McInnes, defending, told the court: “He has been effectively in custody since the incident. He has been out and back in again. He has served a significant period for other offences since. “There was something on his record, perhaps suggesting that he should not have been in the same cell as anybody else, as far back as 2017. He was very unwell and was medicated soon after this incident.” The court heard that Smith, 34, has 65 previous convictions for 123 offences including robbery, and since the incident had been “back and forth into custody”. Mr McInnes added: “He will go back to Bangor. He will be sofa surfing. He hopes that he will get another prescription, but he will have to find somewhere to get it. “He does have some contact with his mother. He says, at the moment, that he is motivated to stay out of trouble, to take his medication and to try to move forward, but there is very little in place to help him when he gets out.” Appearing via video link from HMP Liverpool Smith admitted to one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Judge David Swinnerton handed him a 16 month jail sentence. Judge Swinnerton said: “There was some sort of argument about a vape. You are somebody who finds it difficult to share a cell. It has been recognised that you have should not have been sharing a cell. “I do infer that you were suffering from some form of psychotic condition at the time. You have 123 previous offences on your record from 65 previous convictions. It is an aggravating feature that you committed this while in prison. It is a mitigating feature that it happened two years ago now. “I suspect that you will not have very much more to do. Most of all, it is up to you. If you want to stay out of prison and stop wasting your life going in and out of prison, you are going to have to find somewhere to live and make sure that you are signed up to a GP to make sure that you get your prescription. “Without that, you will relapse and end up back in prison. I urge you, for your own sake, the make sure that is sorted out when you come out.”