A teenage boy was arrested for allegedly attacking a 67-year-old homeless man with scalding water in a Tokyo park, news reports said Tuesday, DPA reported.
Public broadcaster NHK said the 14-year-old wanted to see how the hearing-impaired man would react to being scalded.
"I was way out of line," it quoted the boy as saying later.
The teen allegedly poured hot water over the unemployed man who was sleeping on a bench the night of September 18, Kyodo News reported.
The victim was in hospital with burns on his neck and shoulders, it said.
A surveillance camera at a nearby convenience store filmed the boy pouring the hot water into an empty juice container.