Pensioner killed in brutal park attack was ‘adored' by community, daughter says
A grandfather who was killed by two teenagers as he walked his dog in the park was a 'family man through and through' and 'adored' by the community, his daughter has said.
Bhim Kohli, 80, was just yards away from his home in Braunstone Town, Leicestershire, when he was kicked and punched in Franklin Park by a balaclava-clad boy on the evening of September 1 last year.
The 15-year-old boy was ordered to serve seven years' detention and a 13-year-old girl was handed a three-year rehabilitation order by a High Court judge on Thursday at Leicester Crown Court for his manslaughter.
A trial heard Mr Kohli was racially abused and slapped in the face with a slider shoe by the boy while the girl filmed and laughed.
In an interview, Mr Kohli's daughter Susan Kohli said her father was 'the most crazy, loving person you could meet'.
She said the family had moved away from Braunstone Town, where they had lived since the late 80s, for two years but returned to the area before her father was killed because her mother Satinder missed living there.
They are now considering leaving the area again because of the painful memories of her father's death in a park he visited often.
Ms Kohli said: 'We never had any problems. It only just started a couple of months prior to dad passing.
'It was peaceful. We came back, not knowing two-and-a-half years later, that that neighbourhood was going to take our dad.
'We have been discussing, do we leave? Do we move? As much as we have all our memories there, we have that one memory.
'But even if we do move, it is never going to go away. Also, why should we move? Because if we move, that just means they have won.
'They have pushed us out from a place we have always called home. We love the area, we love the community, our neighbours are our whole family and we know if we go and move we won't get that anywhere else.'
The fatal attack on Mr Kohli was the last of several incidents involving local youths, including one in the July before he died in which he was racially abused and spat on, his daughter said.
An emotional Ms Kohli said her father was not one to 'pick a fight' and although some incidents were reported to the police, the family just wanted the children involved to be given a 'firm talking to'.
She recalled her father's passion for working on his allotment, how he would always put his family first and would spend hours in the park where he was later attacked talking to people as he walked his dog Rocky.
She said: 'He just got on with life and was full of life. He was a complete joker, he would do anything and everything for his family.
'He would always put the children and his family first. He was a family man through and through. Even his friends adored him, the community adored him.
'You would walk through the park and everyone would just talk to him – they would just stand and chat to him.
'He'd be in the park for an hour and the dog would be sitting at the front door because he came home. He was much loved by everyone.
' People who hadn't seen him for 30 or 40 years reached out when it happened and that just showed how much people loved my dad even though they didn't see him for so long.'
Ms Kohli said Rocky was 'lost' without her father, adding: 'We all are.'
Despite her pain, Ms Kohli, who sat through every day of the trial of her father's killers, said hate was a 'strong word' but the teenagers had shown no remorse for what they had done and instead told 'lie after lie'.
She said: 'I feel anger. There is part of hate, because they took my dad. They took my dad away from us for no reason whatsoever.
'Anyone who can do something like that, there are no words for it. I could say some words but it wouldn't be appropriate, because then that just makes me as bad as them.'
She added: 'There doesn't seem to be any remorse. We were there every day and there was no inkling that you could see that they were remorseful.
'There were inconsistencies in their evidence from the day they were questioned by the police to the day they were giving their defence statement a month prior to court and even when they were in the (witness box). It was just lie after lie.'
Because of their age, the boy and girl were allowed to sit in the well of the court throughout the trial instead of the dock and barristers and the judge did not wear their traditional robes.
Ms Kohli said she did not believe the teenagers deserved being treated with 'gentle gloves' after what they did to her father.
She said: 'Why should they be given grace for what they have done? In my eyes, you chose to take my dad's life so why should you be treated with gentle gloves?
'It is not as though they chose to have a fight or beat up a young person of their own age, or someone in their 20s.
'They chose to attack a defenceless pensioner. And for that I can't give them any of my sympathy.'
Ms Kohli said it was 'disturbing' having to watch the video clips the girl had made of the attack on her father during the trial.
She said: 'It was really hard, really hard to watch that. They attacked dad several times.
'It started where they hit dad with the slider and he was on his knees. He then got up to leave the park and they didn't let him leave, and that is where we just can't understand why.
'Why would they not just let my dad leave the park? He was trying to come home.
'Children of that age attacking an old age pensioner. You can see from his physique that he's a very gentle, frail man.
'What was going through their heads? That is what I cannot understand and get my head around.'
Ms Kohli said that while social media had a 'part to play', parents must also take more responsibility for their children.
She said: 'They were out at crazy times, on the phones at gone midnight, these are children.
'I know this isn't to all parents but they need to know what their children are up to because how can a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old do something like this to an old age pensioner?
'Did they not think, what if that happened to their parents, their grandparents? How would they have felt?
'It's about adults taking responsibility. Hold the parents accountable then. Bring them to court as well.'
Recalling the moment she ran to the park after being alerted to her father having been attacked, Ms Kohli said she knew it was serious because her father never usually complained about pain but was in 'agony' on the ground.
She said: 'He never goes to the doctor, he's never in pain, he never complained he was in pain, it wasn't what he was about.
'He would never ever complain about being in pain, in agony, he would just get up and carry on.
'It was absolutely heartbreaking to see him in pain like that when he's never complained about being in pain, never in his life.'
Ms Kohli said her family had been left 'broken' by her father's death.
She said: 'He was the one that held us all together and that's gone now.'
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