Latest news with #BraunstoneTown
BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
Bhim Kohli: MPs demand sentence review for killers of man, 80
Two MPs have called for a review into "unduly lenient" sentences given to two teenagers convicted of killing an 80-year-old man at a Kohli died in hospital a day after being attacked while walking his dog at Franklin Park in Braunstone Town, Leicestershire, in September.A 15-year-old boy was sentenced to seven years in custody for manslaughter at Leicester Crown Court on Thursday while a 13-year-old girl was given a three-year youth rehabilitation order and made subject to a six-month Mid Leicestershire MP Peter Bedford and Alberto Costa, MP for South Leicestershire, have written to the Attorney General's Office (AGO) calling for the sentences to be looked at. The AGO told the BBC it had received several requests to review the sentences given to the pair, who cannot be named due to their the Attorney General and Solicitor General agree the sentence appears unduly lenient, they can ask the Court of Appeal to review the sentence. 'Shocked and appalled' During the hearing on Thursday, prosecutor Harpreet Sandu KC said Mr Kohli was subjected to a "seven-and-a-half minute period of continuing aggression" at the boy racially abused Mr Kohli, attacked him and slapped him in the face with a slider shoe while the girl encouraged the assault and laughed as she filmed it on her attack left Mr Kohli with three broken ribs and other fractures, but Mr Sandhu KC said the fatal injury was to his spinal cord, caused by a spine sentencing, the victim's daughter Susan Kohli said she felt angry and disappointed the punishments did not match the severity of the he had written to the AGO, Bedford said: "I am shocked and appalled at the leniency of these sentences."These two young people will soon be able to move forward with their lives, while the family of Mr Kohli serve a life sentence of pain and grief."The Ministry of Justice has been contacted for comment.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Daily Mail
Teen killers' parents should face court too: 80-year-old victim's daughter says police should 'hold parents accountable' after boy, 15, and girl, 13, were sentenced for fatal attack
The heartbroken daughter of a pensioner who died after being brutally attacked by two children has said the teenage killers' parents should be dragged into court and held accountable for their kids' actions. Bhim Kohli, 80, was out walking his dog just yards from his home in Braunstone Town, near Leicester, when he was set upon by a balaclava-wearing boy, 15, while a 13-year-old girl filmed the shocking assault. The innocent grandfather was kicked and punched to the ground, racially abused and mocked by the girl - who recorded him as he lay on his knees. Moments later, the frail pensioner was left crumpled and alone in the park. His own children discovered him with horrific injuries later that day. He died in hospital the following evening, having suffered a broken neck and fractured ribs. Yesterday the 15-year-old boy was ordered to serve just seven years in a young offenders' detention centre and a 13-year-old girl was spared being jailed and instead handed a three-year youth rehabilitation order. Now, in the wake of their sentencing, Mr Kohli's devastated daughter has issued a powerful call for justice - Susan Kohli said the teenagers' parents should also face legal consequences. 'The parents have a part to play in it because from what we heard in court, (the children) were out at crazy times. They were on the phones at gone midnight. These are children of the age of 12 and 14 (at the time of the killing),' she said. 'How can a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old do something like this to an old-age pensioner? Do they not think what if this happened to their parents, their grandparents? '(It's) adults taking responsibility. Hold the parents accountable. Then bring them to court as well.' During the harrowing trial at Leicester Crown Court, Mr Justice Turner told the pair - referred to only as D1 and D2 due to their ages - that the attack was 'cowardly' and 'wicked.' Turning to the boy, he said: 'I am sure, D1, from the start you wanted to confront Mr Kohli, mainly because you were showing off to D2 — you knew she was watching and was likely to take films on her mobile phone.' '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.' It was also revealed that Mr Kohli told his daughter he had been called a 'P***' during the attack. The judge acknowledged this but added that mobile phone evidence didn't show the teens held 'general racist views,' calling it instead 'a lazy but very hurtful insult.' The court heard chilling details about the girl's role: she filmed the boy slapping Mr Kohli with a slider shoe and recorded footage of him lying motionless on the ground. Shockingly, she also had a photo of the elderly man on her phone taken eight days before the attack. The boy had originally been charged with murder but was found guilty of manslaughter. In a letter written two months later, he claimed to be suffering flashbacks and wrote: 'I feel like my case is evil. I accept I did it and I am doing time. I kinda just needed anger etc releasing.' Despite the horrifying nature of the crime, Susan Kohli says the young killers were treated with kid gloves by the justice system. 'I feel angry and disappointed that the sentence… does not, I believe, reflect the severity of the crime they committed,' she said after the hearing. The court made deliberate efforts to make the proceedings less intimidating for the children — lawyers did not wear wigs or gowns, and the defendants were allowed to avoid sitting in the dock. Ms Kohli said there had been 'under-reporting' of incidents of anti-social behaviour in the months leading up to the attack on her father and that the Government needs to do more to ensure police have the resources they need to safeguard communities. Reading her own statement to the packed courtroom yesterday, Mr Kohli's daughter Susan Kohli said her family are surrounded by 'consistent sadness' since he died. She said: '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 every day - we have never felt hurt and sadness like this. 'My mum, a gentle human being, has found herself saying she would like the children subjected to the same treatment they gave her husband to see how they feel.' She added: 'My mum and I felt we needed to attend the trial each day to understand the evidence fully. 'We tried to remain strong but, the truth is, inside we feel broken and it has been stressful listening to the enormity of what happened and what he was subjected to.' Describing the moments she found her father injured on the ground in the park just yards from the family home, Ms Kohli said: '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. We were later told the shocking news he was no longer able to take the medication that was keeping him alive. 'He passed away before our eyes, surrounded by his family who were in floods of tears and disbelief. 'Due to him being killed in these circumstances and being involved in a criminal investigation, dad was unable to donate his organs which were always his wishes. It pains me we were unable to meet his wishes.'
The Independent
5 days ago
- The Independent
Teenagers sentenced for killing elderly dog walker in park attack
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.'
The Independent
5 days ago
- The Independent
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.'
The Independent
5 days ago
- The Independent
Judge describes ‘violent outbursts' that killed dog walker yards from his home
A judge described the 'two separate violent outbursts' by two teenagers which killed a 'vulnerable' dog walker near his home. Bhim Kohli was walking his dog when he was racially abused, punched, kicked, and slapped in the face with a shoe in a brutal park attack in Braunstone Town near Leicester on September 1, 2024. The 80-year-old suffered a broken neck and fractured ribs and later died in hospital. In his sentencing remarks at Leicester Crown Court, 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 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.
