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Boy scarred for life as friends set fire to boxer shorts
A DRUNK teenager left a friend "scarred for life" after setting fire to his boxer shorts while he slept, a court heard.
The 17-year-old school dropout from Maltby, Rotherham sprayed deodorant on his pal's underwear before setting fire to the garment with a cigarette lighter, Sheffield Crown Court was told.
His friend, aged 15, needed hospital treatment and skin grafts after the attack in May this year, which happened at the older boy's house.
Carl Fitch, prosecuting, said the pair had been drinking all afternoon before the 15-year-old fell asleep on a bed.
The 17-year-old, who was 16 at the time of the incident, scribbled graffiti on his friend's face and body with a red pen, and shaved off his eyebrows before setting the boxer shorts alight.
"He panicked and put the flames out with a T-shirt, but then just left him," Mr Fitch said.
He said the boy was "shocked and scared" by the extensive injuries to his genitals and left thigh, and that the burns were "full thickness", completely penetrating the skin.
Mr Fitch said the boy was given skin grafts from his left thigh at Sheffield Children's Hospital before returning home in June.
In a statement read to the court, the 15-year-old described his ordeal, and said he wished his attacker could "feel the pain and discomfort he's caused me".
He said: "I couldn't shower or wash. It was terrible. I was stuck inside doing the same thing, watching TV for six weeks. I couldn't see my friends, I couldn't sleep, and when I did I would wake up screaming in pain.
"People who live near me know where my burns are and ask me about it, which embarrasses me. I don't know if I will ever have a normal sex life. I'm scarred for life."
Timothy Savage, defending, said the attack was "a very dangerous joke that went wrong".
He added: "There was clearly no ill-will on that night. He was fairly shocked when the flame shot out as far as, and as effectively, as it did.
"It's a situation that is not unfamiliar even in far more salubrious circumstances than this. It happens time and time again on university rugby tours - it's the same sort of horseplay. The risk seems funny in the haze of alcohol."
The teenager, who pleaded guilty to recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm, had an extensive criminal record with convictions for battery, affray, racially aggravated assault and ABH, and had just been released from a young offenders' institution when he attacked his friend.
Judge Alan Goldsack QC handed the youth a 12-month detention and training order, to be completed after he has served a current jail sentence for ABH.
He said: "Your history shows you learned nothing from the custodial sentence you had just completed.
"The risk of causing serious harm would have been blindingly obvious to anyone who was sober. Most right-thinking people would be horrified if this did not result in a custodial sentence."
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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