A BUTTERSHAW man who burst into a house and attacked another man with a hammer and what was initially believed to be acid has been jailed for 12 months at Bradford Crown Court.

However, Louis Titre will be freed from prison as he has already been in custody for almost a year.

Sentencing Titre, His Honour Judge Jonathan Rose said it could not be proved that the liquid he and another man threw at the victim was acid or any other corrosive substance.

Prosecutor Alisha Kaye told the court how Titre, 28, was one of two men who, on November 6, 2022, burst into a house in Buttershaw and attacked a man who was lying on the sofa, hitting him with a hammer and splashing him with liquid from Lucozade bottles.

A woman in the house at the time with her three children heard the victim “screaming and shouting in agony”.

Miss Kaye said: “He was screaming out for help. She saw that he was bleeding and his clothes were wet from liquid that had been poured over him.

”[The victim] went to the bottom of the stairs and started removing his clothing and told [the woman] that he needed to go into the shower to get clean.

“He was described by a police officer as moaning in pain, shaking, and was clearly very distressed.

“[He] also stated that he had had a liquid thrown over him, which he believed to be acid.”

The house was evacuated by firefighters, who suspected the liquid to be ammonia but the court heard that there was no actual evidence as to what the liquid was.

The victim also sustained no injuries consistent with a corrosive substance.

Titre was later identified via CCTV footage, and his fingerprints were lifted from one of the Lucozade bottles.

Following a trial in February Titre, of Lime Vale Way, Buttershaw, was found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The court heard that the man who was attacked has not provided a victim personal statement and had failed to respond to all contact from the police. The reason for the attack remains a mystery.

Sentencing Titre, Judge Rose said he had taken part in a “serious and determined assault” on a man in his own home but that he was not able to conclude that the liquid used was acid or any other form of corrosive substance.

He added: “He certainly believed that something like acid had been thrown onto him, and that caused him to panic as much as the extensive use of violence.”

He said the appropriate sentence was one of 12 months imprisonment but given that Titre had already spent almost a year in custody “my expectation is that you will be released immediately”.