A 12-year-old doused another schoolboy in petrol a

A 12-year-old doused another schoolboy in petrol and told the youngster ‘see you on your deathbed’ as he set him ablaze, a jury heard today (Tuesday).

Alfie Page suffered horrific burns to 70 percent of his body as his clothes melted in the resulting inferno – leaving nothing but a collar and his shoes.

And another friend of the injured boy – known affectionately as Podge – claims he heard the firebug chortling: ‘Ha, ha, ha, have that’ as Alfie went up in flames.

At London’s Southwark Crown Court, the 12-year-old, who can not be identified for legal reasons, from Gillingham, Kent, denies causing Alfie grievous bodily harm with intent on May 3, this year, and ‘unlawfully and deliberately’ inflicting GBH.

However, the tousle haired youngster, who sits beside his mother in court, admits ‘unlawfully and recklessly’ inflicting GBH on Alfie, aged eleven at the time.

Alfie’s 15-year-old sister Marcia broke down in tears as she told the eight men and four women on the jury how the critically injured Podge whispered what had so tragically taken place in Gillingham woods.

She said Alfie claimed the 12-year-old had thrown petrol over him, pushed him into a bush, and flicked his lighter.

Marcia said the conversation took place as she joined Alfie in an ambulance rushing him to the Medway Maritime Hospital.

The boy was later transferred to a specialist burns unit at the Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, Essex.

She sobbed: ‘Podge said ”he threw petrol over me, pushed me in a bush so I could get stuck, and said see you on your death bed” and flicked the lighter at him.

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Comforted by a court usher while she gained her composure, she said the defendant had earlier knocked at the door of the family home to bring the news Podge ‘had been burned.

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Describing the defendant’s appearance, she said: ‘he seemed calm but very white.

‘He seemed upset but was smiling, he had a grin on his face.

‘He said Podge had been burned.

I asked how, and he said he didn’t know.

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The two children were driven to the edge of the woods where Alfie had been set on fire.

Marcia said: ‘I asked him if he knew who had done it.

He said ”no” but I could smell petrol coming from his clothes.

‘He then said someone had set Podge alight.

He kept repeating it.

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She told the court an aunt was cuddling stricken Alfie’s head.

‘I was hysterical.

Podge was trying to speak but he could not get a word out of his mouth.

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She said the ambulance and paramedics then arrived.

The trial continues.

ends