Inmate guilty of throwing boiling water over Sheffield woman jailed for fatal stabbing

A mother-of-one who threw a kettle of boiling water over a Sheffield woman jailed for a fatal stabbing while in prison has threatened to kill herself and '˜haunt' the jury who found her guilty.
Josie HollisJosie Hollis
Josie Hollis

Natalie Roberts shouted to them 'you believe a murderer ahead of me?' after the foreman returned a verdict of causing grievous bodily harm with intent against her.

The seven men and five women took just two hours to reach a unanimous verdict against the 35-year-old who carried out the attack in her cell at HMP Foston Hall.

Josie HollisJosie Hollis
Josie Hollis
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Sheffield woman jailed over fatal stabbing had boiling water thrown in her face...
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Now she will have to wait until January 21, to find out how long she will be jailed for.

Recorder David Mason QC, sitting at Derby Crown Court, handed Roberts bail until that date.

But as she left the courtroom, she turned to the jury and said: 'If I kill myself in jail I will come and haunt all 12 of you.

Bradley Onfroy was found guilty of murdering Jordan HillBradley Onfroy was found guilty of murdering Jordan Hill
Bradley Onfroy was found guilty of murdering Jordan Hill

'You want to send me back to prison where there are child murderers?

'Thank you, you believe a murder ahead of me?

'A murderer? I never killed anyone.'

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The two-day trial heard how the incident took place in C-Wing at HMP Foston, at around 7pm, on July 27, 2017.

Jordan Hill was murdered at his home in Southey, SheffieldJordan Hill was murdered at his home in Southey, Sheffield
Jordan Hill was murdered at his home in Southey, Sheffield

At the time, Roberts was a serving prisoner while her victim, Josie Hollis, who was awaiting trial for the murder of a city drug dealer.

Miss Hollis said in the build up to the kettle incident Roberts, of Broughton Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, had 'constantly abused' her in the 'social' areas of the jail such as the canteen.

She said moments before it happened she had been supporting another inmate who was being verbally abused by a third prisoner.

It was then that Roberts called out 'murderer'.

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Miss Hollis told the trial: 'I was confused, so I approached Natalie to ask her what she was on about.

'I walked into the doorway of her cell and saw she had a kettle in one hand and a cup in the other.

'The lid of the kettle was up.

'I knew what was coming, so I went to turn away, but she splashed me over the left side of my face with the boiling water.

'It was a full kettle of water.

'I now have permanent nerve damage and I am on quite a high dose of medication which I don't want to be on.

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'It has caused me mental illness, I have real bad anxiety, I am scared, I have to look over my shoulder constantly and I have permanent scarring down my back, neck and chest.'

Roberts had denied one charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

She told the jury how Miss Hollis splashed herself with the boiling water as the pair of them struggled in her cell with the kettle.

At the time Miss Hollis was awaiting trial for the murder of 23-year-old Jordan Hill who died shortly after an attack in the hallway of his flat in Southey Avenue, Southey, Sheffield, on March 23, 2017.

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She was jailed for 15 years after admitting manslaughter and robbery, while her accomplice Bradley Onfroy, 32, was sentenced to a minimum term of 33 years after being found guilty of murder and robbery.

The judge who jailed the pair, Peter Kelson QC, said he believed they were both involved in '˜extensive and significant planning' of the robbery, and subsequent murder of Mr Hill.

Mr Hill, a dad-of-one, had been selling drugs from the living room window of his ground floor flat just before he was killed.

Onfroy, who was armed with a knife, jumped through the window and stabbed him to death in a bid to rob the dealer of cash and drugs. 

Hollis was in a getaway vehicle outside Mr Hill's flat.

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Devon Small, for Roberts, urged Recorder Mason to hand his client bail as she has a 10-year-old son and would need to arrange child care for him when she is jailed on January 21.

Recorder Mason agreed, handing her bail on the conditions that she is on a tagged curfew to her home address between 9pm and 6am, each day and reports to her local police station every Monday and Friday.