To think it was Wilkinson's own fault that one of their shops was set alight by a work experience girl.

[IamHelenaJustina]

Daily Telegraph link here Basically bored 15 yr old was left alone to stack shelves and set fire to cardboard to get out of it. Causing HUGE blaze and thankfully no injuries or loss of life. Obviously she is entirely responsible for the stupid and dangerous action and has been prosecuted accordingly.

BUT a part of me wonders what the heck the store staff were playing at. Work experience is not free labour. She should have been with staff learning about different roles and not bored out of her mind alone in a stock room. Or AIBU? Is that what work experience is for?

I simply can't understand why she wasn't included in board meetings at the very least. If she's the sort of person that would set fire to a building, where people work and shop out of petulance, can you imagine how delightful she had been to have around all week.

Yabu.

Although I've had some pretty shitty jobs and I've also suffered from dissociation (which this 15 year girl had been experiencing, as alluded to in the court case) which can be hugely escalated by boredom, so I do understand where the girl was coming from.

Still, totally unreasonable to endanger life and cause huge disruption and cost to the emergency services and the company.

YABU even if she was being used as free or cheap labour.

This takes victim blaming to a new level!

YABU, there is absolutely no justification.

Not sure if you are just looking to post something controversially.

On no level whatsoever is what she did acceptable.

I feel sorry for her, as this moment of madness may now follow her around for the rest of her life.

I sincerely hope that this isn't forwarded through references and such like and that the store tells her, after she has been punished, that she is forgiven. It would be a lovely gesture to this child, if the store could give her a Saturday job as a way of wiping the slate clean.

No one is a winner in this situation, least of all the girl's parents who must be feeling a mixture of relief that she is safe and worry about her future.

It won't be as she's underage

It won't be as she's underage

It rather implies to me that their position was that there's no point having WE placements if you can't leave teens alone to stack shelves.........

It rather implies to me that they don't want to run the risk of another fuckwitted teen causing £1m worth of damage.

No chopin she should be volunteering to work for them to compensate them for her actions!

of course it wasn't yheir fault.

YABU - I was 14 when I did my work experience. One day my task was to remove old photo film negatives from their old envelopes, and put them in new envelopes. Pretty sure they just made that job up on the spot.

I did it all day from 9 to 5, alone, in a stock room cupboard with no windows.

Bored doesn't even come close to it.

But I didn't set fire to anything.

Oh, you should have done, Pourquoi. Film negatives go up a treat...

shes not a future arsonist

No, indeed. She's already an arsonist. Maybe that's the work experience she was after.

YABVU.

From The Telegraph article:
"The teenager caused up to £1 million worth of damage to a Wilkinson shop after starting the blaze with a cigarette lighter on July 8 this year."

And why on earth did she have a cigarette lighter on her anyway? Premeditation?

Or, um, smoking?

No, WhereYouLeftIt, she was equipped for the smoke she intended to have whenever and wherever she could get away with it.

I was bored shit loads as a teen by jobs, school, my parents- by your idea I could have been a serial arsonist and been blameless.

Yabvvvvu she is 15 and should know right from wrong. My work experience was boring photocopying and filling when I was 15, I did not feel tge need to set the office alight. She could have killed and injured people. If she was that bored, don't come back the next day. Op your off your trolly.

Wonder if she will get a sentence... Wonder if it was teenage boy from run down council estate it would be delt with the same way!

Clearly this girl is to blame but I will admit that I don't feel too sorry for the store. After all, you get what you pay for.

I never realised that being bored meant it was ok to set fire to things.

Silly me!

Though having a lighter means it was "premeditated"? Haha! She couldn't be a smoker could she? Oh no!

Bored children/teenagers do not usually commit arson. Thank heavens. So no excuse. And if the firm is held responsible that will only mean the opportunity for work experience will be massively restricted for other youngsters. YABVVU.

how the fuck is it the stores fault, everyone can be bored at work at some point but they don't go and set fire to the place to get out of it.
I hope she gets punished for it, arson is still a crime even if you are 'only' 15