Description
A teenage prisoner, Ethan Rowley, threw boiling water over a fellow inmate's groin in the shower block at HMP Nottingham, leaving the victim with blistered skin peeling from his genitals and legs.
Nottingham Crown Court heard that Rowley, then 19 and on remand for serious sexual offences, carried out the unprovoked attack on November 8, 2024. He later received a 21-year sentence at Derby Crown Court last summer and will now serve an extra nine months.
Judge Michael Auty KC said:
"You are currently serving a sentence of 21 years which for someone of your age is exceptional... The circumstances surrounding this offence are that whilst serving at HMP Nottingham in the shower block you threw scalding, if not boiling, water over the victim. It caused his skin to blister, some of the skin was left hanging off his legs and groin area and caused damage to his genitalia. It is not entirely clear what the overall effects were because, as often happens with prisoners, he did not comply with the prison or give a victim personal statement,"
Prosecutor Samantha Warner explained: The victim entered the shower area where Rowley was; the defendant left, returned with a blue mop bucket, and threw its contents at the victim's groin and legs, causing immediate excruciating pain and blistering. Other prisoners doused him in cold water, and he was treated at QMC for burns to his chest, thighs, right arm, and genitalia.
Rowley, now 20 and at HMP Swinfen Hall, admitted throwing a corrosive substance with intent to burn, maim, disfigure, disable, or cause grievous bodily harm. He has prior violent convictions and was sentenced last July for raping two women in Derbyshire.
Defence barrister Gregor Purcell stated:
"I have no doubt it would have been pretty unpleasant blistering and it is undoubtedly painful and deliberate harm caused by him. He is a young man who is already facing an extremely long period inside for someone of his age."