A BOY who was badly burned by an older youth who set him on fire said he would feel better if the culprit had been given a custodial sentence.
Anthony Cunnane (14), from Dundalk, and his parents decided to publicise their grievance after a two year suspended sentence was imposed by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court earlier this week. Anthony suffered burns to 80 per cent of his body.
"I would have felt better if he had gone to prison, I wanted him to go into jail even if it was just for a month," he said.
The family had been sure Judge O'Connor was going to imprison the attacker, who cannot be named for legal reasons, when he remanded him in custody over the weekend to consider the sentence.
The youth had pleaded guilty to maliciously causing grievous bodily harm on April 22nd, 1994.
"We were led to believe the judge wanted him put into custody. We were assured that somewhere would be found for him," said Anthony's mother, Breda.
Instead the family was told the 16 year old culprit was too old for Trinity House in Lusk and too young for prison, and his defence counsel argued he would suffer educationally if placed in St Patrick's Institution.
"We blame the system, not the gardai or the judge, we are not angry at them," said his father, Anthony.
He asked why a youth who may not have committed as serious a crime could not be released to allow room for the boy who set his son on fire.
"I believe he didn't intend the damage he has done, but he still did it," Mr Cunnane added.
Mrs Cunnane said she believed her son had been taunted by the youth who knew Anthony jnr had been accidentally drenched with petrol.
"Anthony has seen him since at the local shop ... I have seen him walking along this street and past our house ... and he doesn't live near here," she said.
Anthony has regained the weight he lost during his six months in hospital and can play football again, but he suffered extensive pain.
When his father was told about the incident which happened within 200 yards of the family home, he ran to the scene. "I didn't expect to see what I saw. I still thank God that Breda wasn't in the house ... The flesh was hanging off his hand. All I could see was bone."
At the Louth County Hospital in Dundalk they were told not to hold out much hope for their son surviving the night.
He was then transferred to Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children and spent three months in intensive care. The medical staff told them Anthony would be in hospital for up to 18 months.
Anthony smiles as he remembers the day he left intensive care. A nurse with whom he had become friends came in to him, took away the various tubes and lifted him out of the bed and carried him on to the roof.
"I was never outside in the three months . . . I felt dizzy," he happily recounts. From then Anthony used a wheelchair and then crutches as his leg muscles recovered.
"No one understands what he had to go through. He had numerous skin grafts and surgery when he really wasn't well enough for it. They could take skin from only one part of his right arm and when they grafted skin from it they had to wait for it to regrow on the arm and then would graft it somewhere else.
"When it became too painful they took the skin from one of his ankles, but that used to take longer to heal. The pain he went through was incredible," said his mother. She added that he was returning to the way he was before his ordeal.