A COUPLE claim a teenager tried to set their York daughter’s hair on fire because she was a “goth”.

Lisa Kenmuir and her partner, Craig, said their 13-year-old daughter was also kicked in the back by her female attacker.

Ms Kenmuir said her daughter was walking through Tang Hall with a 12-year-old friend when the teenager said to her: “You look like an emo goth.” Her daughter replied: “So?”. The attacker and two friends then followed the girls, throwing stones which fortunately did not hit them.

“She got out a lighter and tried to set her hair on fire,” said Ms Kenmuir. “It was singed but fortunately it didn’t catch fire.

“I view this as a hate crime, as it only happened because she thought my daughter was a goth because of her dark eye make-up. My daughter was really upset afterwards and doesn’t want to go out on her own now.”

The girl’s father, Craig, said: “She uses quite a lot of spray on her hair and if it had caught fire she could have been terribly injured.”

The couple claimed a police officer had told them he was not prepared to arrest the culprit as it would mean a lot of paperwork, lead to her being detained at the police station for four hours and would go on her record and affect her chances of a job later.

Instead, he wanted the attacker either to write a letter of apology or to come round to their house to carry out work – options which the couple said were unacceptable.

They said their daughter had been verbally abused by her assailant earlier this week but the officer had still said he was not prepared to make an arrest.

The couple said they intended to make a formal complaint about a lack of urgency and concern from the officer.

North Yorkshire Police said the force took all reports of assault seriously and would like to reassure the victims and their families that a full investigation was being carried out it into this “nasty incident”, which had been very frightening for the young victims.

“However, we understand a formal complaint is due to be made to the police and it is therefore inappropriate to make any further comment,” said a spokeswoman.

Anyone with information or who witnessed the incident, in Moore Road at about 6.15pm on April 23, is asked to phone police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.