A man who poured boiling water over a person’s head and face and stabbed another man in the back in Colchester has been made the subject of a hospital order.

Kieron Milligan was asleep on a sofa when he felt boiling water on his face and saw Perry Carr, who’d been staying in his flat, reaching across a coffee table, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Carr had left the flat with Mr Milligan’s mobile phone.

Mr Milligan was taken to hospital for treatment to extensive burns to his face, head, chest and arm, said Benedict Peers, prosecuting.

He had spent three weeks in hospital and in a victim statement he said he had been left feeling paranoid and having sleepless nights as a result of the attack.

Two weeks later on May 4 this year, Daniel Archer was sitting on a bench on the Greenstead Estate talking to a woman who owed him money when he was approached by Carr.

Carr had stepped behind him and Mr Archer described a blow to his lower back as feeling as if he had been hit by the “heaviest weight in the gym”.

Mr Archer ran off and got into a car driven by a woman he knew after telling her he’d been stabbed, said Mr Peers.

When he got out of the car there was blood on the seat but Mr Archer did not seek medical treatment for the wound to his lower back.

Carr, 27, of Myrtle Bank, Milton Keynes, admitted two offences of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm on April 18 and May 4 this year, theft of a mobile phone and possession of a knife in Miranda Walk, Colchester.

The court heard that Carr had an emotionally unstable personality disorder and a history of paranoid schizophrenia.

Judge David Goodin made him the subject of a hospital order under the mental health act, with a section 41 restriction meaning he can only be released by the secretary of state following a recommendation by a mental health tribunal.

Carr, who was made the subject of a hospital order in 2016, was also banned from contacting Mr Milligan or Mr Archer for five years.