Train fire assault 'silly joke'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/sussex/8334345.stm

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A teenager accused of setting fire to a sleeping train passenger has told a court he just meant to singe his beard.

Aedan Palmer, 19, of Tower Road, Lancing, told Chichester Crown Court it was a "silly joke that went wrong".

He has admitted a lesser charge of causing grievous bodily harm (GBH), but denies causing GBH with intent.

He is one of four defendants accused of setting fire to Luke Kennedy on a train in Sussex last December, leaving him with full thickness burn injuries.

Palmer said the group were being loud on purpose to try to wake up 22-year-old Mr Kennedy, and one of them shouted he was a tramp.

If I knew how serious it was I never would have left the train Aedan Palmer

He said they did not discuss setting him alight, but as the train drew to a halt he put a lighter to Mr Kennedy after being egged on by the others.

He said: "It was just a spur of the moment thing and I just flicked the lighter.

"In no way did we mean to set him on fire or anything like that. We just meant to singe his beard at the bottom.

"If I knew how serious it was I never would have left the train."

The court heard the group left the train and ran off laughing after the attack.

Palmer said he did not realise the extent of Mr Kennedy's injuries.

"The first I heard about it was when I saw it in the papers the next day. It scared me, I just threw up," he said.

Mr Kennedy, an admin assistant at Chichester College at the time, was treated in a specialist unit for burns to his lips, ears and cheeks.

'Buying cannabis'

The three other defendants, Mr Hardy, 20, of Grace Road, Crawley, and two youths, 14, who cannot be named, deny causing GBH with intent.

The three also deny the lesser charge of causing GBH, which Palmer has pleaded guilty to.

Palmer told the court he and co-defendant Dean Hardy spent the afternoon in Lancing drinking, and each had about 10 cans of Stella.

The court heard that Palmer and Mr Hardy had later bumped into the younger boys, then aged 13 and 14, and the group had boarded the train at Lancing without tickets, planning to travel to Durrington to buy cannabis.

Palmer was asked how drunk he had been on a scale of one to 10, and answered seven or eight.

The case was adjourned until Monday.