Burnt girl, 16, found naked at golf course

POLICE were last night waiting by the hospital bed of a teenage girl critically ill with burns.

They are waiting to question her about reports that she was kidnapped by two men who tortured her before pouring petrol over her and setting it alight.

Police said Suzanne Jane Capper, 16, of Bewley Walk, Moston, Greater Manchester, was found yesterday morning near a golf course in Romiley, Stockport, Greater Manchester. The girl, naked and with severe burns, flagged down a passing car.

After being taken to a nearby house she was taken by ambulance to Stockport Infirmary.

She was later transferred to the specialist burns unit at Withington. A hospital spokesman yesterday described her condition as 'critical'. Before losing consciousness she reportedly told Barry Sutcliffe, the driver who helped her, that she had been abducted from her home and held against her will.

Mr Sutcliffe said: 'She said she had been held for over a week in a flat somewhere, she wasn't sure where, and she had been injected with drugs and that she had been brought up here and dumped.'

The victim, who has not regained consciousness, told Mr Sutcliffe that the two men then doused her in petrol and lit it.

Police said they could not confirm reports that the girl had managed to tell them that she was kidnapped by two men who poured petrol over her and set it alight.

A Greater Manchester police spokesman said last night that an investigation was under way and a number of people were being questioned about the incident.