Teenagers sentenced for killing elderly dog walker in park attack

Independent

2 days ago

Two teenagers have been sentenced for killing an 80-year-old dog walker who was racially abused, punched, kicked, and slapped in the face with a shoe while on his knees in a brutal park attack.
A 15-year-old boy was ordered to serve seven years' detention and a 13-year-old girl was handed a three-year youth rehabilitation order by a High Court judge at Leicester Crown Court for the manslaughter of Bhim Kohli, who suffered a broken neck and fractured ribs just yards from his home.
The girl had filmed a series of video clips in which Mr Kohli was slapped with the shoe by the masked boy and another where the 80-year-old lay motionless on the ground, the court previously heard.
Mr Justice Turner said it had been a 'cowardly and violent attack' on an elderly man who did 'nothing to deserve' what happened to him.
A six-week trial heard that Mr Kohli called out for help while walking his dog Rocky when he was assaulted by the balaclava-clad boy while the girl laughed and filmed parts of the attack on her phone in Franklin Park, Braunstone Town, near Leicester on September 1 last year.
Both children denied their part in the grandfather's death but were convicted of manslaughter by a jury at the same court in April, while the boy was cleared of Mr Kohli's murder.
Prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu KC told the sentencing hearing on Thursday that there was 'deliberate humiliation' of Mr Kohli during the attack that came against a backdrop of 'bullying and antagonising' of the pensioner by other local youths that the boy must have been aware of.
Mr Kohli's children found him lying on the ground in agony when he told his daughter that he had been called a 'P***' during the attack.
In a victim impact statement, Mr Kohli's daughter Susan Kohli told the packed courtroom on Thursday: 'He was in so much pain, he was screaming out. It was horrendous and we have never seen him like this.
'We knew he was very poorly and in severe pain but we thought he would go to Leicester Royal Infirmary and be fine. We never imagined he would never return home.'
She said the family had been left 'broken' by what had happened to her father, adding: 'They left my dad on his own, helpless and in pain.
'Losing dad in these cruel, violent and deeply shocking circumstances feels like our hearts have been pulled apart.
'We can't put into words the pain we feel everyday – we have never felt hurt and sadness like this.'
Mr Kohli's grandson Simranjit Kohli said in a statement read by Mr Sandhu that he was 'haunted' by his grandfather's death.
He said: 'It's painful for me and my family that we will never get to see if he is proud. We won't get to see the smile on his face when his grandkids get a house, get a car, then get married and have kids of their own.
'I was the first one out of my family at the scene. Not a day goes by when I think if I were minutes earlier I could have stopped what happened.
'There is of course sadness and sorrow, there's also hate, anger and rage. Everywhere I go I'm haunted by the thought I could be with him if things had happened differently that day.'
In his sentencing remarks, High Court judge Mr Justice Turner said: 'I am sure you knocked Mr Kohli to the ground and hit him with your sliders.
'I am sure Mr Kohli did nothing at all to deserve what you did.
'What you did was wicked.
'You made a cowardly and violent attack on an elderly man.'
Mr Justice Turner said the attack had been 'wicked' and that evidence that suggested Mr Kohli told his daughter he was called a 'P***' during the attack was right, but that evidence from their mobile phones did not show they held 'general racist views'.
He said: 'It was a lazy but very hurtful insult.'
Addressing the boy, the judge added: 'I'm sure you regret that he died because of what you did to Mr Kohli, but you still say it wasn't your fault.
'It was your fault and the sooner you realise this the better.'
He accepted that while the girl had encouraged the boy's behaviour, she did not know he would use 'anything like the level of violence he did'.
The boy, who was 14 at the time of the killing, told the jury he had a 'tussle' with Mr Kohli over his slider shoe which had fallen off before he slapped the elderly man with it out of 'instinct', which caused the pensioner to fall to his knees.
He admitted pushing Mr Kohli over to defend the girl, who claimed the grandfather came towards her with his arms raised in a 'slapping motion', but denied kicking or punching him.
In a letter written by the boy to a woman who had worked with him at the residential unit where he was being looked after last year, he wrote: 'I f****** hate what I did. I regret it so much. I have flashbacks of that day and it just upsets me. I kinda just needed anger etc releasing.'
The girl, who encouraged the boy's violence against Mr Kohli, filmed a series of video clips of the attack, in which she is heard laughing, keeping them in a passcode-protected 'My Eyes Only' folder on Snapchat.
The clips included Mr Kohli being hit with the shoe by the masked boy, one showing the pensioner walking towards the exit of the park calling for help, and the grandfather lying motionless on the ground.
She had told the court that Mr Kohli called her a 'bitch' when other children had thrown apples at him a week or two before he died.
The girl, who was aged 12 when Mr Kohli was killed, denied that she took a photo of him a week before his death to 'target' him and told the court she did not point him out to the boy before the attack.
Speaking before the sentencing, Kelly Matthews, senior district prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service East Midlands, said: 'This was a violent and unprovoked attack on a much-loved member of our community by two very young individuals.
'It's really important to pursue this to show that such unprovoked, violent incidents – that led to the death of an individual – will be pursued and prosecuted regardless of an individual's age, and regardless of their precise role in it.
'The boy was the one that inflicted the violence on Mr Kohli. (The girl) was a catalyst for these events and had she not done what she did, by pointing out Mr Kohli in the first place as well as the encouragement she gave, events may have unfolded differently.
'This is a shocking and tragic case, and our thoughts remain with Mr Kohli's family.'