A DUNDALK boy suffered 80 per cent burns and spent three months in intensive care after being set ablaze by another youth, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has been told.
The 12 year old might have died but for local man Mr Harry McEntaggart, who threw himself on the victim to put out the flames, Sgt Rodney Hodgkinson said.
Sentence was adjourned to Monday to see if there is a suitable detention place available to hold the defendant, who is now almost 17. Judge Kieran O'Connor said the offence was "appalling" and indicated he intended to put the defendant in custody. However, he was told that the youth is too old for Trinity House detention centre in Lusk, Co Dublin.
The youth pleaded guilty to maliciously causing grievous bodily harm to the victim on April 22nd, 1994. Because of his age, the defendant cannot be named.
Sgt Hodgkinson told Mr Eamonn Leahy, prosecuting, that the victim had been playing with some friends in a shed at the back of a house. Accidentally, a container of petrol spilt over him. As he walked to his home a number of people clearly saw petrol dripping from him and could smell it.
He passed a group of youths which included the defendant. Some witnesses said the defendant took out his cigarette lighter, held it to the victim's back and flicked it.
Immediately the boy was engulfed in flames and he began running around. A number of people grabbed at him and tried to beat out the flames. Attempts were made to throw him on the ground or into pools of water to extinguish the flames. Mr McEntaggart, described by Judge O'Connor as a "brave man" threw himself on the boy and beat out the flames.
After the event the defendant went home. He told his companions that, if questioned, they were to say the fire started accidentally when he was lighting a cigarette. His friends refused to lie. He gave this version in his first statement to gardai but later admitted to having placed his lighter at the boy's back.
The victim was rushed to the local hospital in Dundalk but was transferred immediately to the burns unit of Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Dublin.
Doctors found burns to go per cent of his body, with 15 per cent burns to each of his legs. His face was the least burnt part of him. He was in intensive care for three months and was fed intravenously. He suffered multiple shock and epileptic and psychotic episodes during that time.
He needed numerous skin grafts and had to wear special garments to protect his damaged skin. He was released from hospital in September 1994 and returned to school.
Last January, he began to remove the protective garments but suffered emotional trauma because of it. He has become withdrawn and psychological problems have been detected. His mother felt, even though there was no proof, that comments had been passed in school, the sergeant said. The boy has been advised not to play contact sports as his skin could be damaged easily.
Sgt Hodgkinson agreed with defence counsel Mr Ronan Maguire that the incident was not premeditated and arose out of a chance encounter. The defendant's parents were separated and at the time of the offence he had been staying with his father, who had been drinking heavily. There was another man staying in the house who was also drinking, and the defendant might have been drinking, too.
Pleading for leniency, Mr Maguire said there was a lack of parental guidance at the time of the incident. His client was deeply remorseful for his action and he still could not understand why he had done it. Reports on him showed he had been very badly affected by the case.