Teenage boy jailed for 7 years over Indian-origin elderly man’s killing in UK

London, Jun 5 (PTI) A 15-year-old boy found guilty in 80-year-old Bhim Sen Kohli’s death following an “unprovoked” assault was on Thursday jailed for seven years, while a 13-year-old girl also convicted of manslaughter over the attack in a park near Leicester, eastern England, escaped a custodial sentence.

Justice Mark Turner, who handed down the sentences in a televised hearing from Leicester Crown Court, described the attack on Kohli as he walked his dog in September last year as “wicked”.

In April, a jury had convicted the boy, referred to as D1, for punching and kicking Kohli and the girl, dubbed D2, for filming and encouraging the attack.

Being minors, neither can be named for legal reasons and the judge stated that he was bound by law to take their age into consideration in the sentence he handed down.

“You made a cowardly attack on an elderly man,” Justice Turner told the boy.

“I am sure you regret it, but you still say it wasn’t your fault. The sooner you realise this the better,” he said.

Addressing the girl, he noted that a custodial sentence would do “more harm than good” as he imposed strict conditions on her as part of a three-year youth rehabilitation order, including a six-month curfew.

“This tragic incident shocked the community of Leicester and beyond. Mr Kohli set out to walk his dog in his local park as he did every day, but lost his life in what followed,” Kelly Matthews, Senior District Crown Prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), had said following the teenage convictions.

“We have shown in this trial that these young defendants were responsible for Mr Kohli’s death – in an unprovoked attack on an innocent man. They filmed the incident and laughed and bragged about it afterwards,” she said.

The jury heard that the boy was the principal offender as it was his actions that resulted in Kohli’s death. The evidence of the girl’s involvement showed that she was part of the attack, in encouraging it and filming it, but there was not enough evidence to show she could have foreseen the terrible outcome of the boy’s violent conduct.

“The circumstances surrounding this incident are truly tragic and heartbreaking. Bhim Kohli was simply doing what he did every day, walking his dog in the park that was just yards from his own front door.

“But instead of being able to enjoy an evening stroll with Rocky on a warm summer’s day, he was confronted by a teenage boy, who was encouraged by a teenage girl, attacked him and left him in agony on the floor,” said Detective Chief Inspector Mark Sinski, from the East Midlands Special Operations Unit Murder Investigation Team, after the jury found the teenagers guilty of manslaughter.

“Sadly, the resultant injuries were fatal and Mr Kohli’s death has left not only a family grieving the loss of a beloved husband, father and grandfather but the wider community too.

“The age of the defendants in the case has added to the devastating circumstances surrounding this incident and complexities in the case. They will have to deal with the enormity that their actions resulted in a man losing his life and the consequences this now brings,” he said.

Following the convictions, the victim’s daughter Susan Kohli released a statement on behalf of the family to pay tribute to the devoted life partner to her mother for 55 years, a loving dad, grandad, brother and uncle.

“Listening to the enormity of what dad was subjected to will never leave us. We feel anger and disgust towards the teenagers who took dad away from us. They humiliated an 80-year-old man, assaulted him, filmed it and laughed at him,” said Susan.

“Dad did not deserve this, and we wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone else… 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, and this has magnified during the trial,” she said.

It was evidence retrieved from the girl’s phone that showed harrowing footage of the attack on Kohli, presented to the jury. The boy admitted to witnesses that he had assaulted the elderly man and also wrote a letter to a social worker, admitting what he had done.

The CPS presented CCTV evidence of their actions before and after the attack, including audio of them joking about the attack to friends.

“In charging these two young defendants, the CPS determined that they were both criminally responsible for Mr Kohli’s death, but with different roles. They were prosecuted under the principle of joint enterprise. Both actively participated in the incident that led to Mr Kohli’s death but in different ways,” the CPS said. PTI AK GSP GSP