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A thug who killed Melanie McCarthy McNamara had boiling water poured down his throat while he slept in jail.

Keith Hall, 24, suffered serious injuries in the brutal attack.

A source said: “He’s a dead man walking. He knows that there is a contract on his head.

“It’s only a matter of time before someone gets to him and kills him.”

He was pinned down by two prisoners during the horror attack - the second on him in weeks - at Dublin’s Mountjoy jail.

The Mirror last night learned a gang has paid prisoners up to €20,000 to maim the killer, jailed for 20 years in July.

The killer of shot dead teen Melanie McCarthy McNamara has been left scarred for life after prisoners poured a kettle of boiling water over him.

Thug Keith Hall, 24, who is serving 20 years for manslaughter, suffered horrendous burns when the hot water was poured down his throat and on his chest and back.

He was pinned down by two prisoners during the horror attack at Dublin’s Mountjoy jail.

The self-confessed heroin addict could be heard screaming in agony after he was set upon in his cell on the D wing of the prison last week.

Prison officers rushed to his aid and he was quickly brought to the Mater Hospital for treatment.

He was later transferred to St James’s Hospital were he was treated for his injuries up until two days ago.

It’s understood the attack on the dad-of-one was ordered by rivals outside prison who offered €20,000 to any inmate in the jail who would “take Hall out”.

It’s the second time Hall, who was handed one of the longest ever manslaughter sentences in history, was attacked within weeks.

Last month the maniac, who has 111 previous convictions, was stabbed with a makeshift shiv [knife] after being attacked by five inmates.

He required 50 stitches following that attack.

A prison source last night said that Hall is a “dead man walking” and has become a target since being jailed for the brutal killing of 16-year-old Melanie.

The source said: “Hall is a walking target. Everyone hates him in the prison.

“He was attacked by two inmates last Monday week. He was pinned down by one of them while the other poured a kettle of boiling hot water all over him.

“It was in the middle of the night too so Hall wouldn’t have been expecting it. They caught him off guard.”

The source added: “He was in excruciating pain when officers got to him. The hot water went all over his back and chest.

“Some even went down his neck. The pain must have been excruciating.

“His injuries were that bad that he had to stay in hospital from September 3 right up until Tuesday.

“He is still very sore and will be left with horrendous scars.”

Hall, who had his first conviction at 14 years old, had previously been handed an 11-month custodial sentence for illegal knife possession before being jailed for Melanie’s killing in July.

He has been targeted a number of times over the last few weeks by fellow prisoners who are “out for his blood”, according to prison sources.

The source continued: “Inmates will stop at nothing to get him.

“His life has been made hell. He spends the whole time looking over his shoulder.

“The latest attack is just more proof to him that he’s not safe.

“He also knows that there is a contract on his head.

“It’s only a matter of time before someone gets to him and kills him.”

Hall is currently in protective custody in prison for his own safety.

An internal prison investigation into the latest incident has been launched.

A spokesman for the Irish Prison Service last night refused to comment on the brutal attack.

Traveller Melanie was gunned down as she sat in the back of the car at Brookview Way in Tallaght, West Dublin, with her boyfriend and another man on February 8 last year.

She died a short time later in hospital.

Gardai believe she was not the intended target of the attack.

Melanie was born in Ireland but moved to London with her dad Stephen “Shakey” McCarthy and Melissa.

The doting teen was very close to her parents and she adored her siblings Stephen Jnr, 14, Dylan, 11, Patrick, six, and three-year-old Jane.

They returned to Ireland when she was a young teenager and she started seeing Christopher Moran, 21.

The pair were engaged to be married and they were together on the night of her death.

Following the shooting her body was returned to London for a large funeral.