Father ‘poured gasoline on his son, 4, and tried to set him on fire to “burn the demon out of him”‘

A FATHER who allegedly poured gasoline on his four-year-old son in an attempt to set him on fire was trying to "burn the demon out of him," a neighbor has claimed.

Josiah James McIntosh, 27, was arrested Wednesday after police arrived at a home in Pennsylvania to find the child naked and covered with gasoline.

Officers responded to a reports of a domestic disturbance incident about 1:15pm on Wednesday at a residence along Wren Street in Johnstown’s Southmont Borough, police said.

A man approached officers outside the home and told them that McIntosh had poured gasoline on the boy and told him, “If we can’t get out the demon, I’ll burn it out of him,” according to court documents and as reported by the

The unidentified man said he had tried to intervene and stop McIntosh but he was punched and hit on the head with a brick.

Police confirmed the man had visible injures on his left side, particularly the head and ear, reported.

If we can’t get out the demon, I’ll burn it out of him.

Josiah James McIntosh, as quoted by a neighbor

When officers located the child, they said he was standing naked inside the residence and had gasoline poured on him and around him.

His father was located shortly after, following a brief search of the neighborhood.

McIntosh reportedly smelled of gasoline and was in possession of a disposable lighter.

He faces charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment, making terroristic threats, arson and child endangerment, according to court documents.

The 27-year-old dad is being housed at the Cambria County Prison and his bail has been set at $75,000, court dockets show.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 27.

The upsetting news comes as a mother was set on fire allegedly by the father of her own children.

Savanna Bailey, 23, suffered burns from the waist up and on 60 percent of her body after apparently being doused with gasoline and lit on fire, her family say.

The children's father is said to have forced them to stand outside the family in home in Wisconsin in the cold and watch.

And a father set one of his children on fire and doused another in petrol after telling a neighbor he torched his toddler because she “was too beautiful”, a court heard.

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