A TEENAGER denied killing a tramp in Dartford's Central Park and instead, blamed his friend.

Maidstone Crown Court heard how George Johnson burnt to death when two teenagers set light to his clothing using firelighters.

The 41-year-old victim suffered 40 per cent burns to his body and died in hospital from a heart attack and the effects of smoke inhalation in June this year.

Boy A, from Dartford, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was aged 15 at the time.

He was giving evidence on the eighth day of the trial. Pleading not guilty to murder, he told the court his friend Boy B, aged 13 at the time, had put the firelighter in Mr Johnston's jacket.

He said: "I saw him place it down his jacket. He had a newspaper down there.

"I couldn't see anything once he placed it down there. I thought it went out."

But he admitted setting light to Mr Johnstone's hair after being told to "Go and do it for a joke."

He told the court: "That's what I done. I went and placed it on his head. His hair was singeing.

"After a couple of minutes he brushed it off into the flower bed... The other two were laughing at the bloke on the bench. I done it for a joke."

Boy A said he did not see any smoke and thought the fire had gone out when they left the scene.

He denied telling a school friend, Boy C, who faces no charges, he put firelighters in Mr Johnstone's pocket shoe or ear, saying: "I never did any of those things.

"I thought the man on the bench would be alright."

November 6, 2001 12:37