BOY SET ON FIDE

Opotiki News, Volume I, Issue 123, 16 December 1938, Page 4

BOY SET ON FIDE

TWO YOUTHS RELEASED “DID NOT REALISE RISK” " -y ■ , 9 MELBOURNE, A Nov. 7. Tw Q youths who poured inflammable liquid pver .another and set him.alight, nearly killing him, were said by Judge Wasley in General Sessions to-day to have been ,y> young that they probably did 'not realise the full possible consequence &>f, their action, ■ Judge Wasley directed the jury ,to bring in a verdict •of not guilty on the .charge of Unlawfully and maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm. The youths, Edward Norman Crisp, aged 17, tinsmith, and William Clarence Prest, aged 17, metal worker, then pleaded guilty to a charge of assault, were formally found guilty by the jury, and were released on a bond to. lie of good behaviour for three years and to come up for sentence if called upon. The Crown case was that the two accused and the injured youth, Raymond Leslie Short;, press hand, were employed by Stokes. and Sons, manufacturers, of West Brunswick. in the lunch-hour of: .March 18 they began to chase and annoy Short. Prest placed Short’s head under'his arm and. Crisp poured ha.lf a small can of lacquer thinning spirit on his hack. Prest was seen" to . strike a match or two and Short caught lire. The flames were put out by an older employee. Short was severely burned, and skin had to he grafted on to his hack. He was in hospital for five and a-ha.lf months. Short, in evidence, said that he was still a great friend of both youths. Judge Wasley said that the offence had been to some extent a boyish prank, and the youths had not considered the risk. The youths were obviously very sjprry for what they had .done. •