A MAN who threw boiling water onto two Wrexham prison officers has been ‘given a chance’ and narrowly avoided jail.

Dominic Evans, 23, of Bromborough Village Road, Wirral, appeared at Mold Crown Court on September 15 where he was sentenced for two offences of assault on an emergency worker.

Maria Masselis, prosecuting, told the court that in June 2018, Evans appeared at Liverpool Crown Court where he was sentenced to 56-months in prison after four drug offences and was serving that time in HMP Berwyn.

In July 2019, prison staff told Evans another prisoner had been allocated to share his cell however he was ‘clearly unhappy with this news’.

When supervising officer Jones told Evans it was not his choice, Evans picked up a ‘large white, non-prison issued kettle’ which had been left by another prisoner.

The court heart how Evans was ‘holding the kettle against him’ which had recently been boiled and Officer Jones repeatedly asked him to ‘get his thumb off the lid’.

Ms Masselis added that as the officers moved to try and restrain Evans, he emptied the contents onto the torso and thigh of Officer Jones and some liquid also went onto a second officers arm.

The court heard how he felt as if his ‘skin was burning’ and could ‘see steam coming off of the clothing he was wearing’.

Ms Masselis said a ‘scuffle’ occurred but eventually Evans was detained and calmed down.

As a result of the incident, one officer had red skin to his torso and leg which lasted a few days, but did not need medical treatment, however, the second officer required medical attention for superficial burns.

The court heard how the second officer also had pain in his back which left him hospitalised due to a trapped nerve as a result of the incident.

Duncan Bould, defence counsel, said the incident happened 14-months ago and Evans had ‘changed’.

He told the court that Evans ‘wasn’t to know the victim would bang his back and cause complications’, but Evans had apologised a few days later.

Since the delay, Evans has been released on licence and had ‘made very significant efforts’ to turn over a new leaf.

Mr Bould said he had been successful in doing this and has ‘knuckled down’ and has secured a job as a delivery driver for a fast food chain.

He said Evans was also repairing relationships with this family which had previously broken down and was an ‘intelligent and polite’ character.

Judge Recorder Simon Mills said: “You were on that day, in a cell on your own and as I understand it you were hoping or expecting to have some friend of yours from the prison system coming to share a cell with you.

“Officers came to tell you someone else was going to be put in the cell with you and you took issue with that. That’s another one of the mysterious factors about this case for me, this was an argument you were always going to lose.

“You don’t decide who shares a cell with you.”

Recorder Mills said the decision is down to the prison officers in order to ‘achieve the good order and management of a prison’.

He added: “You decided you were going to have your own way and that is a clear defect in your ability to weigh matters up and make appropriate decisions.

“You were in possession of a non-prison issued kettle, which doesn’t seem to be contraband but rather left by an inmate with the ability to have such things.

“It looks like it had water in which had been recently boiled because the evidence of people seeing steam. When you were told you were going to have this new cell mate, you were unable to just accept it, you were unhappy about it.

“You were warned to put the kettle down.”

Recorder Mills said this would have been a ‘frightening and alarming’ incident for the prison officers.

He said no credit can be given for a guilty plea because Evans had been found guilty at a trial.

Evans was given a 12-month prison sentence for both offences to run concurrently, which was then suspended for 12-months.

Recorder Mills said he was in a difficult position because on the other hand he has a ‘young man released, getting his life back together’ who now had a job.

He added: “Sometimes a suspended sentence is regarded as a let off, it’s not.”

Evans was also ordered to carry out 200-hours unpaid work and 35 sessions of a thinking skills accredited programme.