Boy cleared of burns charges

Alfred Page needed 20 operations after fire

A 12-year-old boy has been cleared of deliberately throwing petrol over a friend and setting him alight.

The boy, from Gillingham, Kent, was alleged to have caused the injuries to Alfred Page, then aged 11, following an argument in May.

Alfred suffered 70% burns in the incident and spent months in hospital recovering from his injuries.

The jury at Southwark Crown Court in London were played a videotape of an interview with Alfred in his hospital bed.

Petrol bombs

In it he alleged the defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had turned up uninvited as he and three friends were playing with petrol bombs.

He said the defendant had turned on him, poured petrol over him and set him alight.

But the defendant said the fire had started when he tried to free Alfred, whose trouser leg had got caught as he climbed over a fence.

He said he had attempted to burn away the material with a lighter but the spark ignited a petrol bomb Alfred was carrying.

Alfred and his friends claimed the youngster ran away laughing but the boy denied this and said he had gone to get help.

The court heard Alfred's life was probably saved by his friends, who had fought to put out the flames with their bare hands.

Family outburst

The jury of eight men and four women took just over over an hour to clear the boy of deliberately injuring Alfred.

The verdict was met with outrage by the Page family.

Alfred's mother, Maria, ran sobbing from the court.

She later said she would appeal against the verdict.

"He is a monster and ought to be locked up," she said.

Despite his acquittal the 12-year-old still faces sentence next month after admitting recklessly inflicting Alfred's injuries.