THREE boys set fire to a drunken man in what a court was told was a "frightening and terrifying" incident.

The boys used lighters to set fire to the man's coat in Ramsgate in August this year. The attack was caught on close-circuit television and shown to a judge at Canterbury Crown Court.

The video showed how the laughing youngsters "pestered" drunken Boualem El Aoahed as he sat on a bench in Queen Street near the town centre.

The homeless vagrant had been asked for cigarettes by the group - unaware that they were trying to set his anorak alight.

Judge Nigel van der Bijl watched as a 14-year-old boy from Ramsgate began the attack - helped by his two friends, one from Dover and the other from Chatham.

Anthony Prosser, prosecuting, said that as the jacket began burning, the three walked away. He said Mr El Aoahed then realised his clothes were alight and was helped by an older youth into putting out the flames and removing the coat.

The court heard that the fire burned a four-inch by four-inch hole in the top - and also damaged a red undershirt.

Mr Prosser added that the police were alerted and caught the three trying to run away.

They told officers they had just wanted to singe their victim's clothes - but when the 14-year-old was shown footage of the incident, he began laughing, Mr Prosser said.

Adrian Amer, for the Ramsgate boy, now turned 15, told the court: "What does one say about such a frightening and terrifying incident that this must have been, in the early hours of that particular morning?

"A group of young boys attack, by means of fire, a hapless vagrant. It is almost beyond belief. I am not going to stand here, in any shape or form, and minimise the actions of my client on that particular day.

"But he did tell the police during his interviews that he did not mean to harm him.

"As he told the officers: 'I was just being an idiot. It was stupid, but I did not mean to burn him', " he added.

Mr Amer said the officers reminded the teenager that had others not gone to Mr El Aoahed's aid and he had died from his burns "you would have been that close to murder".

"It beggar's belief that someone so young could have got involved in such an incident. He now accepts that that had he known the consequences of his actions he would never have got involved and he would like to say sorry to the victim.

"But we cannot understand why he did it and maybe he himself can't understand it either."

David Jeremy, for the 12-year-old Chatham boy, said the three young boys "were bored with nothing to do."

He added that what they did was "irresponsible" but was "no way near murder".

"What you are punishing here is not malice but gross stupidity," he added. He said the boy had lost his mother and had become estranged from his father.

Tanya Robinson, for the Dover boy who is now aged 12, said: "This was clearly an unpleasant incident but at the time, he thought his actions was almost a game."

She said he had been smoking cannabis and drinking alcohol for two years and had been in and out of care because his mother could not cope.

Ms Robinson added that only hours before the incident, he had been taking drugs and drinking. "He is a vulnerable young man who has many issues."

But Judge van der Bijl rejected calls for the three to be allowed to remain in the community - and ordered them to be detained.

He said: "I am sure that what you did that day was to threaten the life of another human being. These are grave offences."

He ordered the boys from Ramsgate and Chatham to be detained for three years each - and the Dover boy for two years. Each had admitted a charge of reckless arson.