Danny Smith left his fellow inmate in agony following a brutal behind bars assault at HMP Altcourse
18:59, 02 Jul 2025Updated 18:59, 02 Jul 2025
Danny Smith(Image: Merseyside Police)
A prisoner threw a kettle which was full of boiling water over his cellmate as he slept because they had rowed about a vape, a court heard. The victim was left in agony after 34-year-old Danny Smith carried out the assault at HMP Altcourse in Liverpool.
Smith had been placed into the same cell as another prisoner despite warnings about doing so given he had 65 previous convictions for 123 offences including robbery. Liverpool Crown Court heard that Smith and fellow inmate Paul Guest were sharing a cell before they had a row because Mr Guest refused to let Smith use his vape.
The court heard that, in the early hours of July 27, 2023, Guest woke up on the bottom bunk in his cell in “intense pain”. Don’t miss a court report by signing up to our crime newsletter here.
Sarah Gruffydd, prosecuting, described how Smith, who is of no fixed address but originally from north Wales, was found beside the cell door pressing an emergency alarm and shouting: “He’s going to kill me”.
The two men then became involved in a scuffle at which stage Guest “realised he had been swilled” after noticing a kettle on its side on a table with traces of sugar on it.
The boiling water had been poured over his left arm and neck resulting in scalding in both areas. He was subsequently treated at Whiston Hospital and left with “light scarring” on his upper arm and hearing difficulties as a result of a perforated eardrum.
The altercation was ultimately broken up by the arrival of prison officers at which stage Smith confessed to the guards that he had assaulted Guest “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.
“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.”
Smith admitted one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He was jailed for 16 months.
Sentencing, Judge David 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, to make sure that is sorted out when you come out.”
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