Jessica Blenkiron a 23 year old prisoner who threw boiling water over another inmate at HMP Low Newton has received a three-year sentence. The attack followed a dispute over a pair of tweezers.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that a fellow prisoner had lent the tweezers to the 23-year-old defendant. Two days before Christmas, the defendant told the owner she could not find them.
The two women argued. The defendant then shouted that the other woman should come to her cell if she wanted the tweezers back.
On 25 December 2025 the victim went to the cell and a further row broke out. It ended with the defendant throwing boiling water from a kettle over the woman’s face, neck and arm. The defendant then shut her cell door.
She later told a prison officer she was “sick of being bullied so swilled her”.
Injuries
The victim said she felt the water burn at once, and that her skin stung and throbbed. The court heard she had second-degree burns to her face, neck, back, hand and arm. Her wrist had a grade one burn.
Blisters formed in three places on her right forearm. She wore bandages for two weeks and needed painkillers.
In a victim impact statement she said: “I feel stupid to have let this happen. We’ve never had issues before this. I was not expecting to be assaulted.”
Sentence
The defendant admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent. Sophie Allinson-Howells, mitigating, described her as a “complex individual” with a long history of contact with mental health services. The court heard she had never served a prison sentence before her remand last year.
Recorder Jamie Hill KC accepted that relationships between prisoners could be hard, especially for someone who had struggled with her mental health. He told her: “But what you did was very dangerous. It had very unpleasant consequences, at least in the short term, and could have been so much worse.”
HMP & YOI Low Newton is a high security reception prison for women in the North East. Its last full inspection, in February 2026, rated safety, respect and preparation for release as good, and purposeful activity as reasonably good.
