A TEENAGER who set fire to a skip, burning a friend alive, had his sentence reduced by 12 months yesterday.

The Court of Appeal heard how Michael Temperley, 15, died from shock, burns and breathing in smoke after he was shut in the skip, which was then set on fire as a prank.

His 15-year-old friend, who cannot be named, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to four years' detention at Newcastle Crown Court on April 1 this year, despite a plea for mercy from his victim's mother, Linda.

The boy, now 16, was present at the Court of Appeal in London yesterday to hear the decision by three senior judges to reduce his term.

Lord Justice Hooper, sitting with Mr Justice Grigson and Mr Justice Stanley Burnton, said: ''We have reached the conclusion, after very anxious consideration, that this appeal ought to be allowed and that the sentence of four years' detention will be reduced to one of three years' detention.''

The victim's parents were present in court for the ruling.

During an eight-day trial, a jury heard how Michael, of Oakwood Avenue, Low Fell, Gateshead, Tyneside, had been playing on his bike when he was shut in the enclosed waste skip.

The skip contained wood and cardboard from a furniture store on the Team Valley Retail Park.

However, the prank went wrong when the defendant posted a lit piece of paper through a gap between the door and frame and the skip went up in flames.

The trial judge, Mr Justice Henriques, accepted that the defendant had tried to free Michael.

He acknowledged that the teenager had not foreseen that the skip door's locking mechanism would jam.

The teenager's counsel, Peter Lodder QC, told the appeal judges yesterday that a few moments of recklessness had cast a shadow over the rest of his client's life.