Teen apology for fire 'accident'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/wales/south_east/6991959.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A teenage boy accused of deliberately setting his 13-year-old friend on fire has told a court that he did not mean to hurt him and that he was sorry.

The 14-year-old said his friend's injuries were caused by accident.

The victim suffered 29% burns and a plastic surgeon told the jury at Cardiff Crown Court he would have long-term physical and mental scars.

The boy denies causing grievous bodily harm with intent, but has admitted grievous bodily harm.

The court heard the boys were at a friend's house near Aberdare, south Wales, on 12 April when petrol was spilled on the 13-year-old's clothing.

Giving evidence to the trial for the first time, the 14-year-old boy said the victim had spilled petrol on his own leg after falling to the floor while sniffing its fumes.

Huw Evans, prosecuting, had told the court that the 13-year-old "quite literally went up in flames" in the incident.

The 14-year-old admitted sparking a lighter near his friend's leg after petrol had spilled on it.

When asked by Jeremy Jenkins, defending, why he had flicked the lighter next to the victim's leg, the teenager said: "Because the boys told me to."

This injury was extremely serious and will result in long-term scars, both physically and mentally, and could have been fatal Thomas Potokar, plastic surgeon

He then went onto say he did not think the trousers would go up in flames the way they did because he thought it would be the same as lighting spray from an aerosol.

"With an aerosol, if you light it there's a little blue flame and then it goes out," he told the court.

He also admitted that lighting aerosol spray was something he had done before and that he had panicked when he saw the flames.

"I didn't know what to do," he told the court. "I'd never seen it happen before."

The 14-year-old boy also told the court that between 20 and 30 minutes had elapsed between the petrol being spilled and the lighter being sparked, and that he believed the fuel would have evaporated by then.

The jury had previously heard that the two boys had been with others and the group had been messing about with a friend's motorbike.

Smoking

The 14-year-old denied he had argued with the younger boy that day.

When asked if he meant to injure his friend, he said "no" and added that he was sorry for what he had done.

The jury heard that the 14-year-old boy often played with his lighter and he had been smoking since the age of eight.

The 13-year needed skin grafts during his eight-week stay at Morriston hospital, Swansea.

Plastic surgeon Thomas Potokar said in a statement read to the court: "This injury was extremely serious and will result in long-term scars, both physically and mentally, and could have been fatal."

Neither boy can be identified.

The case continues.