Gay British Teen Dies After Being Set On Fire During Birthday Party

Gay British teen Steven Simpson died after sustaining burns relating to a prank carried out by Jordan Sheard (pictured above), who was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

Partygoers had dared Simpson, who suffered from Asperger’s syndrome, a speech impairment and epilepsy, to strip down to his underpants, according to the Yorkshire Post. Reece Thompson then doused the 18-year-old in tanning oil, before Sheard, 20, set him on fire after flicking a lighter near his groin. “Gay boy” and “I love d-ck” were discovered scrawled across Simpson’s body.

“Egged on by others you sought to put a flame to Steven,” Judge Roger Keen stated to Sheard, according to the Daily Mirror. “What it did was engulf him in a fire. You tried to briefly assist and then you ran away. That in my judgment is serious aggravation.”

Multiple local LGBT rights activists have deemed Sheard’s three-and-a-half-year prison term to be too lenient. However, prosecuting attorney Tim Warburton maintained that his sentence was “within the range of what would be expected had it been considered a hate crime,” in a statement to The Star.