A HEALTHCARE assistant at a Bradford hospital was seriously injured when a mentally ill patient threw scalding tea in his face, a court heard today.

Daniel Bailey, who has schizoaffective disorder, hurled the hot liquid containing up to seven sachets of sugar, at Witness Murembeni because he wanted some food at 11.15pm.

Bailey, 37, pleaded guilty to unlawfully and maliciously wounding Mr Murembeni with intent to do him grievous bodily harm at the Cygnet Hospital in Bierley Lane, Bierley, on December 19, 2017.

The attack came five years after Bailey threw hot water at a nurse at the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, and punched another staff member, Bradford Crown Court was told.

Bailey, now at Wathwood Secure Unit in South Yorkshire, appeared on a video link to be sentenced to a Hospital Order with a restriction on when he can be released.

Prosecutor Maryam Ahmad said that he carried out assaults in hospitals in 2007 and 2008, being charged with battery and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

In 2012, he attacked two nurses at the Northern General Hospital after he was asked to turn down music on the ward.

One nurse was in the canteen when Bailey threw hot water in his face, telling him: “It is just as well you are wearing your glasses otherwise you would have been blinded.”

When the man’s colleague came over, Bailey punched him.

He received a Hospital Order for the two offences of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, Miss Ahmad said.

The court heard that Mr Murembeni was on late-night duty at the Cygnet Hospital when Bailey asked him for food.

He walked out of his room to make a cup of tea while Mr Murembeni was sitting in a corridor. He knew of Bailey’s violent history and avoided eye contact when he heard him approaching.

It was then that Bailey hurled the hot tea into his face, blistering his skin and temporarily damaging his eyesight.

Bailey told his psychiatrist and the police that he always put a lot of sugar in his tea and did not do it to make it sticky and the burns worse.

The court heard that Bailey was fit to plead and had the capacity to form an intent.

His chronic mental disorder meant that he was at “quite significant” risk of committing further serious offences. He had a history of non-compliance with taking medication and his lack of remorse meant that he blamed his victims.

Judge Colin Burn made a new Hospital Order under The Mental Health Act with a Section 41 restriction, meaning that Bailey will stay where he is unless a Mental Health Tribunal or the Ministry of Justice approves his release.