A violent prisoner will spend 18 more months behind bars after pouring boiling water over a fellow inmate and kicking him in the head during a vigilante "jugging" attack.
Jaiden Dale Gardner's actions are said to have left the victim in "10 out of 10" pain.
ACT Supreme Court sentencing remarks, published on Thursday, show the victim was remanded in custody at the Alexander Maconochie Centre in March 2020 after he allegedly assaulted a woman Gardner knew.
Gardner, who was also on remand in Canberra's jail at the time, went into a cell with the victim and a third inmate, Trinity Cook, one day that month.
Acting Justice Stephen Norrish said Gardner turned on a kettle and the trio had "friendly enough" discussions.
When the jug had finished boiling, however, Gardner punched the victim in the head several times, causing the man to collapse off a chair and onto the ground.
"The offender [then] poured the jug of boiling water ... over the victim and kicked him a number of times to the head," Acting Justice Norrish said.
"During this interaction, the victim rolled over onto his stomach and the offender kicked the victim to his middle and lower back a number of times."
Gardner and Cook subsequently left the cell, with the latter throwing a towel over the victim as they went.
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Prison guards ended up finding the victim bleeding from the head and with skin beginning to peel as a result of the boiling water being poured over him in what inmates call a "jugging".
"A pool of fresh blood gathered on the floor below him where he had been lying and there was a broken jug in the shower area," Acting Justice Norrish said.
The victim required treatment at an interstate burns unit, having sustained burns to 13 per cent of his body, including his face.
"There was no way that the wounds that he suffered or the injuries that he suffered would have healed on their own or without terrible pain and suffering," the judge said.
"His pain score at the time of first assessment was said to be 10 out of 10."
As a result of the attack, Gardner, 26, was charged with intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm.
He pleaded guilty in November last year, just five days before he was due to be tried for the offence.
Sentencing him last week, Acting Justice Norrish detailed how Gardner had endured a traumatic upbringing.
At the age of four, both of Gardner's legs were broken and he was denied medical attention for up to four days in what the judge described as "an entirely disgraceful set of circumstances".
A "harrowing" statement from Gardner's mother also made note of the offender being homeless and having to sleep under bridges at stages of his childhood.
"When one has knowledge of the circumstances of his upbringing, it would be no surprise to understand that the offender has, for a period of time, had symptoms and attitudes and behavioural issues entirely consistent with having suffered some form of post-traumatic stress disorder," Acting Justice Norrish said.
The judge also noted that Gardner had not expressed any empathy for his victim, having told an ACT Corrective Services officer the man had got what had been "coming to him".
"The offender claimed that he reacted as he did because he too had been victimised as a child and that that had an impact upon his thinking at the time of the offence," Acting Justice Norrish said.
The judge ultimately sentenced Gardner to three years in jail over the attack.
He ordered that the sentence be suspended halfway through, expressing a desire "to promote the rehabilitation of Mr Gardner".
With the jail term backdated to start in October last year, Gardner will be released from custody in April 2023.
Cook, 34, was previously given an 18-month suspended jail sentence for being knowingly concerned in the attack.
