Sgt Walker argued that UN peace-keepers perform a policing role so attacks against them are criminal.The Royal British Legion, which has funded Sgt Walker's legal battle, is considering options for pursuing the case.. The black youth set on fire by racist thugs on Friday has been driven out of the Oxfordshire village that has been his home for all his 17 years. The black youth set on fire by racist thugs on Friday has been driven out of the Oxfordshire village that has been his home for all his 17 years. Chris Barton had a near-miraculous escape after being sprayed with petrol from a moving car and set alight by white youths as he walked home early on Friday.He managed to beat out the flames before being rushed to hospital.Last night his face blistered and blackened, he talked of the attackers who laughed as they walked away, leaving him in flames. He said the horror means he can no longer live in the countryside.Wincing with the pain, he told of his shock as the petrol was sprayed from a black car. "Two boys got out and stood right in front of me, then two even taller lads stood behind me," he said."There was a car on one side and a fence on the other I couldn't go anywhere.
The two lads in front of me pulled out lighters and said, 'You smelly Paki'. I stood there just frozen with fear and thought to myself, 'They haven't got the bottle to do it'."The next thing I knew the lighters were lit - I just kept my eyes on the lighters then they lit me up and just walked off, laughing."They were dead casual, they didn't even speed off when they got in the car - it was like nothing had happened." He was badly burned as he struggled to douse the flames, then staggered a few hundred yards to his girlfriend's home to raise the alarm."It was terrible, I can't explain how painful it was," he said "I wouldn't want to go through anything like that again. It felt like an hour to get [to his girlfriend] but it was only five minutes."The couple, who have been together for eight months, want to move from Berinsfield. "I definitely don't want to live there any more," said Chris "I'm frightened to go out at night now I will get lifts everywhere now, where I used to walk. If they would do that to me I don't know what they could do to other people."His face and arms are covered in blistered burns.
The only parts of his face to escape the flames were his "crow's feet", where he screwed up his eyes in agony.He has a large blistered welt on his right forearm, and burns covering the backs of his hands.Thames Valley police are appealing for witnesses. PC John Cornelius said: "We don't have many black people here."Most people living in Berinsfield are white and we only have about three or four coloured families. Berinsfield has had a bit of a reputation in the past but I've never heard of anything like this."Tevfik Kalkan, a Turkish-born kebab takeaway owner, claimed Berinsfield was a hotbed of racial intolerance and was not at all surprised by the unprovoked attack. "I've been here for three months and I don't feel at all relaxed working here," he said."When I told my Turkish friends I was coming to work here they asked, 'Are you crazy?' The people here are almost all white, they scream abuse at me, throw beer bottles and kick my van. They don't accept you if you are from a different background to them I fear that anything could happen to me here at any time.". Along the exhaust-choked stretch of Elland Road the traffic was going at no more than walking pace yesterday as motorists' eyes were drawn to the home of Leeds United Football Club. After the deaths of Kevin Speight and Christopher Loftus in Istanbul last week, fellow Leeds fans turned out in their hundreds in an act of remembrance of which an ever-growing tribute of flowers at the gates of the ground was an inevitable feature.
Along the exhaust-choked stretch of Elland Road the traffic was going at no more than walking pace yesterday as motorists' eyes were drawn to the home of Leeds United Football Club. After the deaths of Kevin Speight and Christopher Loftus in Istanbul last week, fellow Leeds fans turned out in their hundreds in an act of remembrance of which an ever-growing tribute of flowers at the gates of the ground was an inevitable feature. Supporting a football club is nothing if not a collective pursuit, and for most people it was their first opportunity since Wednesday night to gather in the same place and express the sense of community that is always sharpened by tragedy. Never mind that there was no game going on, or that few people knew either of the dead men, or that the circumstances of their deaths raised troubling questions about the nature of football support.Among those present there was never more than a murmur of whispered conversation; many were in tears. "We didn't know you personally but you did not deserve to be taken from your families in this way," read one message, typical of hundreds written on one of the countless white Leeds shirts draped from the railings.To regard the reaction to the deaths of Mr Speight and Mr Loftus as excessive is to overlook the way that football has become one of the prime means of self-expression. Had the two men been stabbed outside a nightclub in Ibiza, no one would have dreamt of piling up flowers outside their favourite nightclub.
But support of a football club bestows a badge of pride that binds all who wear it, and when people die in what is seen as "the cause" of the club, those who are left behind are more than ready to turn wasted lives into something significant."It could have been us," said Nick Smith, who had come to lay flowers. "It has happened to somebody doing something we all do." Mr Smith had come to Elland Road after finishing a night shift, and his eyes were red, but not from lack of sleep.Another fan, Ray Ashworth, a Leeds season-ticket holder for 30 years, was equally upset "I feel I have lost two friends," he said. "I have lost my mum and dad and I have the same empty feeling I had then I cannot explain it I cannot explain it to my wife. I cannot explain it to myself."Shirts and messages left at Elland Road did not come just from Leeds fans. A group from Sheffield United, wearing their team's red and white striped shirts, laid flowers; the day before Newcastle supporters had come to the ground. Even Manchester United fans, perhaps the club's bitterest rivals, hugged Leeds supporters.