Girl was 'not worth' boat theft

First Edition

A lovesick teenager who landed in court after stealing a dinghy to cross the Channel and see a French girl said yesterday that she was not worth it.

David Burnett's boat was off course and heading for Canada when he was taken in tow by a fishing trawler 25 miles off the Cornish coast.

At Truro Crown Court yesterday Burnett, 18, of Tresillian Road, Falmouth, was sentenced to 120 hours' community service. He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to taking a pounds 3,200 Zodiac motor-powered 16ft inflatable craft without authority in March last year.

Burnett met the French schoolgirl when she was on a study visit to Cornwall. Asked after the hearing whether she was worth what he had done, replied: 'No'. But he admitted: 'In a way, I am disappointed I did not make it.'

His father, Roger, said: 'We are all young once and he has paid a high price for love.'