The family of a boy, who suffered horrific burns after being set on fire, say they may appeal against the sentence of the 12-year-old responsible for the attack after he escaped a custodial sentence and was placed in foster care.

The Kent schoolboy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, last week admitted a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm on 11-year-Alfred Page by an unlawful and reckless act.

Judge Andrew Patience sentenced him at Maidstone Crown Court to a three-year supervision order. The boy will remain under the control of the Medway youth offending team while living in a foster home.

Judge Patience told the youth that Alfred's family had been through a "living hell" since the incident.

Afterwards Alfred's mother, Maria Page, said she was unhappy with the sentence and would be appealing against it.

The attack on her son happened in May in Gillingham as the boys were skipping school to play with petrol bombs in a wood.

Alfred claimed the boy deliberately set fire to him, and that as he was engulfed in flames that the youth laughed and pushed him into a bush.

But the youth claimed that Alfred had gone up in flames after his trousers got caught on fencing and he had asked the him to burn away the entangled material.

The youth, from Gillingham, told the court that he could not get over the fence to reach Alfred. So, as two other youngsters ran to the stricken boy's aid, he decided to race home and raise the alarm.

Judge Patience told the boy that his powers to detain him in secure care were limited by Parliament. The boy has been in secure accommodation since the incident.

The judge could have detained the boy for detention and training for a maximum of two years but the sentence would have been reduced to just two months because his guilty plea and because of the time he had already spent in custody.