This story appeared on the ABC News last night, a young guy with high functioning autism got bullied by a third year apprentice and was set on fire on his nineth day at work.  Nathan Frizzle, the apprentice who set him alight, still has his job at Haeusler's Shepperton after pleading guilty to assault in Shepparton Magistrates Court last month. He was given a 12-month good behaviour bond and a $500 fine.  It's a very light slap on the wrist for doing something that almost resulted in the young guy's death.  He was offered an apprenticeship after the incident but Haeusler's then reneged on the offer but they are still employing Nathan Frizzle.

This post was last modified: 09-10-2012 11:43 PM by heisea.

Wait, this guy sets an Aspie on fire and still has his job with only a 12-month good behavior bond and a $500 fine? BS! If the victim was a NT instead of an Aspie then the guy probably would had gotten a worse sentence !

That was in Australia

sad to see

Oh................................................

I saw the item as well.  Simply appalling.  I think the apprentice who did this should have been charged with attempted murder.
Alison

Here's the piece for those who can't access the link:

Legal experts say a bullying case where a young man was set on fire by a co-worker points to serious deficiencies in the workplace health and safety system.

Nick Clements has told 7.30 of how he was squirted with highly flammable cleansing solvents and then set alight by a co-worker at Haeusler's farm machinery dealership in the Victorian town of Shepparton.

Mr Clements, who had been diagnosed with high functioning autism as a young child, was nine days into a two-week trial at the dealership when the assault happened.

"He grabbed a pump-action spray bottle from the side of his tool chest and sprayed me in the crotch with solvent," he told 7.30.

"And then he said, 'It looks like you've wet yourself.' And then he pulled out a lighter from his toolbox, from the drawers and he held it towards me and said, 'I'll light you.'

"And I said, 'Oh, no, you wouldn't,' because you wouldn't think that someone would actually do that. And next thing I looked down, I was all up in flames."

Nathan Frizzle, the apprentice who set him alight, still has his job at Haeusler's after pleading guilty to assault in Shepparton Magistrates Court last month.

He was given a 12-month good behaviour bond and a $500 fine. When contacted by 7.30, he refused to make any comment.

Just before the court ruling, the Government watchdog WorkSafe, which investigated the incident at length, decided it would not take any action because of the police charges.

As a last resort, the Clements family plans to lodge a victims-of-crime complaint with the Director of Public Prosecutions.

But WorkSafe's decision has left Mr Clements and his family feeling badly let down.

"I find it a disgusting outcome. It feels like a real spit in the face to see what he got," Mr Clements told 7.30.

Prominent anti-bullying lawyer Moira Rayner is leading a push for the establishment of a national tribunal to allow civil claims.

She thinks the treatment of Nick Clements is not isolated and that WorkSafe could and should have done much more.

"I have always regarded bullying as a failure by management and all our bullying law is unsatisfactory because they don't give the individual a personal right of redress," she said.

"If they make a WorkCover claim or a WorkSafe claim and it doesn't end up because of technicalities in addressing their problems, then the person who's been bullied, victimised and psychologically if not physically harmed may well have on top of that a sense of grave injustice.

"When someone could have been killed in a classic apprentice-playing-with-fire incident, there should have been an immediate and effective intervention in the workplace so the employer, the employees and the apprentices got the message very loud and clear that this could have ended up in a manslaughter charge."

I hope they sue and get millions.

That's messed up. They should charge that guy with attempted murder. But I don't think they gave him a slap on the wrist because of the victim's neurotype. Also, I think setting somebody on fire should be it's own offense. This isn't a fact, just an opinion, but burns must be the worst pain.

What the hell is wrong with the world?

Is there any way to file some sort of amicus curiae AFTER sentencing to try and appeal for a tougher sentence? Anyone with legal knowledge know?

We need to do more than just sit around and talk about how unjust crap like this is.

Sending this:

Here's the contact details for them:

http://www.haeuslers.com.au/locations.htm

It's the shepparton branch

I encourage people to call and express their feelings - call up, ask to speak to the manager and express your disgust with the whole incident - but do so politely and professionally.

I'm writing a letter at the moment articulating my feelings about the whole appalling incident.  At the very least, Nathan Frizzle should no longer have a job.  I intent to post the letter off tomorrow or the next day once I'm finished.  What a pity there is no form of petition we could also sign to have the incident reviewed.  Unfortunately I can't see any help for the young man who was burnt, he would never feel safe working there again.  But at least the appalling Mr Frizzle needs to be shown that he can't do such things to another human being with impunity.  Who will be his next victim, I wonder?  An old age pensioner who annoys him?  A child?  Totally unacceptable behaviour.
Alison

This story reminded me of a similar story from a couple of weeks ago.

It would seem that in Australia its OK to set fire to people.

"A British backpacker allegedly set fire to a French tourist who had wrapped himself in toilet paper for a fancy-dress party in Sydney.

The 31-year-old French man had turned up at a hostel in the guise of an Egyptian mummy.

But the 30-year-old Briton, who has not been named, set the toilet paper alight resulting in the other man receiving serious burns, police say.

An ambulance had to be called to the hostel, in the popular backpacker Sydney resort of Manly, and the French man was rushed to hospital, where he was said today to be in a stable condition.

But a spokesman for Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital said the burned man would have to undergo skin grafts to his upper back, neck and right arm.

A backpacker, who was there at the time, said: ‘Everyone put on some kind of silly costume for what was just a dress-up party.

‘There was a lot of yelling and shouting when the French man’s toilet paper costume, which he put on to make himself look like a mummy, went up in flames. It was pretty frightening at the time.’

The British tourist, who is from Wales, later went to Manly police station and gave a statement before being charged with recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Detective Inspector Graham Cope said the incident did not appear to be a malicious attack.

‘Setting fire was certainly a reckless act but probably this could best be described as a prank.’

The Welsh man has been granted bail to appear at Manly Local Court next month."

So it looks like he will get a slap on the wrist as well.

Perhaps its a cultural thing

Well the backpacker in the incident related by Heterodox WAS a Brit. It is well known that a lot of travellers check their brains in at the airport.

Regarding the case in the OP unfortunately this sort of thing is a fairly common way to treat apprentices, roughing them up in nasty and dangerous ways. In this case you would think that keeping this sort of employee on would be an insurance issue.

I will be writing to them. Gareth is correct, we need to do more than just complain about this sort of thing amongst ourselves.