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.