SET ALIGHT SITTING ON THE TOILET

Loo prank left pal with burns

A MECHANIC has been spared jail after a fireball prank almost went tragically wrong.

John McCarthy, 22, poured highly flammable brake and clutch fluid beneath a locked loo door while his pal Harry Hayward sat on the toilet.

He then flicked a lighter over the liquid, igniting a huge explosion in the tiny room.

Harry sprinted screaming from the bathroom as flames leapt up around his legs, body, arms and head.

Stupid

He was taken to hospital where doctors treated the 13.5% burns covering his body.

The apprentice mechanic was kept in hospital for a week and still suffers from intense bouts of post traumatic stress disorder after the 2016 incident.

He returned to work but could not touch brake or clutch fluid – or use the toilet where the incident occurred.

Both men worked at Petit Forestier car rental agency in Bristol and McCarthy said the prank usually involved people using spray bottles to ignite fluid. Bristol Crown

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BURST

Court heard that as soon as McCarthy realised what he had done, he desperately tried to put out the flames, telling his work pal: “Sorry, I never meant to do that.”

Catherine Spedding, defending, told the court: “There is an element of age and a lack of maturity. This is a young man who has learnt his lesson, is a low risk of re-offending and is unlikely to take such stupid risks in future.”

McCarthy, who lives with his parents in Bristol, was suspended from his job and pleaded guilty to a charge of wounding.

The Recorder Of Bristol, Judge Peter Blair, spared him a jail sentence, instead sentencing him to 18 months suspended for two years.

He was ordered to pay his victim £7,500 compensation in 12 months and carry out 200 hours’ unpaid work.

The judge told him about a possible jail option: “I’ve been within a hair’s breadth of passing that as an immediate sentence.

“But that would be a negative outcome from everybody’s point of view.”