A 15-year-old boy has been detained for seven years and a 13-year-old girl given a three-year youth rehabilitation order for the manslaughter of an elderly dog walker.
Bhim Kohli, 80, was slapped in the face with a slider shoe and kicked and punched by the balaclava-clad male at a park near Leicester, while the female filmed and laughed.
Mr Kohli had been racially abused, laughed at by the girl and left on the ground before his family found him severely injured on the evening of September 1 last year. He died in hospital the next day having suffered a broken neck and fractured ribs.
Today at Leicester Crown Court, the boy and girl – who cannot be named – were sentenced by Mr Justice Turner over the attack at Franklin Park in Braunstone Town.
The boy was sentenced to seven years’ detention in a young offender institution, and the girl was given a youth rehabilitation order of three years and a six-month curfew.
Beginning his sentencing remarks, the judge praised the family of Mr Kohli for their ‘dignity’ throughout the trial.
He said: ‘No-one could fail to be deeply moved by what his daughter, in court, and his grandson, in a statement, have said. Their grief and anger will cast a long shadow over all of their lives.’
Mr Justice Turner, who referred to the 15-year-old boy as D1 and the 13-year-old as D2, said what the pair had done was ‘wicked’
The judge also said the pensioner ‘did nothing to deserve’ being attacked in the park.
He said to the pair: ‘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.’
The judge said to the boy: ‘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 added that evidence that 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.’
Earlier during the hearing, in a statement read out by prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu KC, Mr Kohli’s grandson Simranjit Kohli said he had been left wondering if his grandfather may have survived if he had got there sooner after he cried out for help.
He said: ‘My grandad was one of the most important factors of my life. He’s the main reason I am who I am. My story revolves around him and with him being taken away, it’s as though the author won’t be able to read his own book.
‘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.’
Reading her own statement to the packed courtroom, 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.’
Mr Sandhu told the hearing that there was ‘deliberate humiliation’ of Mr Kohli when he was fatally attacked in the park.
The prosecutor addressed the court and said: ‘The evidence as a whole, in our submission, demonstrates (the boy) pushed, punched and kicked Bhim Kohli and he did so out of anger.
‘The evidence we have cited also leads to the conclusion that in this case, death was caused in the course of an unlawful act which carried a high risk of death or grievous bodily harm which ought to have been obvious to (the boy).
‘There was deliberate humiliation of Bhim Kohli when (the boy) used violence in the presence of (the girl) and through (the girl’s) filming of that violence.
‘We submit (the boy) had a leading role. The evidence establishes (the boy) was clearly encouraged to do what he did.’
Defending the boy, who was 14 at the time he carried out the attack, barrister Balraj Bhatia KC said he was an ‘immature young boy’ but that he had shown genuine remorse for what he had done and had made ‘significant strides’ in bettering himself.
Mr Bhatia said: ‘He had no history or gripe with Mr Kohli, he wasn’t even aware of his existence before the incident. He never intended Mr Kohli to die – this has affected him.’
He said the injuries suffered by Mr Kohli – which the boy claimed during the trial were caused when he fell on top of the elderly dog walker – could have happened if he had fallen elsewhere.
He said: ‘Had Mr Kohli simply fallen in his allotment, because of his pre-existing conditions, that would be sufficient to cause death.
‘The injuries are consistent with the medical evidence that falling on top of Mr Kohli, which has always been the assertion as far as the boy is concerned, following a forceful push, would be consistent with those fractures to the ribs.’
Jeremy Benson KC, defending the girl who was aged 12 when Mr Kohli was killed, said she has shown positive signs for rehabilitation and there would be a ‘severe and harmful’ impact on her mental health if she was handed a custodial sentence.
Mr Benson told the court: ‘We submit that it was never the prosecution’s case that (the girl’s) intent was identical to (the boy’s). We submit that she had no intention to cause physical harm of any sort.
‘We submit she played a minor role. She used no violence herself. We say that there is no evidence that she used racist language.
‘She has demonstrated, between the date of the original arrest and her conviction, that she can remain in the community without posing a risk to others.
‘We submit that there is a clear and realistic prospect of rehabilitation. We submit that a custodial sentence would have a severe and harmful impact on (the girl), both in terms of the trauma to her and her mental health.’