Teen suffers horrific burns after boy ‘kicks items of molten plastic at her’
A 13-year-old girl has revealed the excruciating burns she endured when a lad chucked a burning lighter into a fire.
Alyssia-Rae Yates was left in eye-watering pain as the scalding material ‘melted through her skin’ in the spine-chilling, unwarranted assault.
The aspiring rugby star was strolling across a playing field in St Helens, Merseyside, on 11 October with her mates when they bumped into a boy who was toying with fire.
As they tried to leave the area of the 3ft high inferno, which contained bits of plastic, the yob lobbed a lighter into it and allegedly booted the glowing debris towards her.
After the ordeal, Alyssia’s mum, Laura Hutton, aged 36, dialled for an ambulance to rush her wounded daughter off to hospital after a pal assisted her back home.
Plagued by burn marks, young Alyssia now has to don bandages as a token of the day’s horror.
Speaking out about her nightmare, Alyssia recounted: “It was really unexpected, I didn’t think anything would happen. It was a big shock. I immediately went to the ground and screamed. When I dropped to the floor, the plastic was melting into my skin.
“It was just going deeper and deeper at that point. It was just going straight through. My friends were trying to pat it down, but then they realised it wouldn’t come off. So they took me home.”
“In the ambulance, my legs were still red and I was shaking a lot because of the shock of it happening. When I got to the hospital and they were cleaning them, it was very painful as they had to go really deep in. He could have lit me on fire, basically.”
Merseyside Police confirmed that no arrests have been made yet and investigations into the incident are ongoing.
Laura revealed her daughter was ‘chilling’ with mates at Blackbrook playing fields, near their home in St Helens, when the horrifying incident occurred around 6pm.
She suspects that the culprit, believed to be an 11-year-old lad, intentionally kicked the molten plastic pieces towards her daughter.
Laura explained: “As Alyssia has moved to join her friend to get past, the boy has dropped a lighter into the fire and then kicked the fire directly at her. At this point, the fire was between two and three feet high.”
“From where the fire has been built, it’s a full 360-degree circle. He could have kicked it in any direction, but he’s kicked it at her. Then one of the friends, her rugby mates, has carried her part way home. It’s only a five-minute journey from where she was to the house.”
Initially, Laura thought Alyssia’s legs were muddy from playing sports when she first saw her after the attack.
However, upon realising the black marks were burns, she immediately put her in a shower and tried to soothe her injuries.
Laura recalled: “I thought she had been playing rugby or something, her legs were black. She was crying and trying to tell me she had been on fire. And at that point, I just put her in the bath and just started putting cold water on her for 15 to 20 minutes, trying to cool her legs down.”
“Then her friend was telling me it was plastic, and I realised nothing was coming away from her legs. So at that point, I phoned the ambulance.”
Following the emergency dash to a nearby hospital, Alyssia endured the agonising process of having the plastic removed from her skin.
She has since returned to the medical unit for further treatment and expressed her desire for her attacker to face justice.
Inspector Josh Griffiths from Merseyside Police urged witnesses to come forward in the wake of the disturbing incident.
He said: “Our inquiries continue and I’d encourage anyone with information to come forward as soon as possible. This was a concerning incident and officers will be speaking to the victim and her family to offer support. Lighting fires can have catastrophic consequences and we work closely with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service throughout the year to respond to such incidents, and to educate young people about the dangers.”