Boy, 15, ‘let anger out’ by kicking pensioner in park, murder trial told

A 15-year-old boy racially abused an 80-year-old man while kicking and punching him to death in a park to “let his anger out” before falsely claiming the pensioner had threatened a girl with a knife, a court has heard.

Jurors were told that the boy carried out an “intense attack” on Bhim Kohli in Franklin Park, Braunstone Town, near Leicester, on September 1 last year while he was walking his dog which caused fractured ribs and a spinal cord injury before his death.

The court heard that he used racial taunts towards Mr Kohli and slapped him in the face with a shoe while he was on his knees as a 13-year-old girl encouraged the violence and filmed it on her phone while laughing.

The boy, who is charged with murder and one count of manslaughter, is on trial at Leicester Crown Court with the girl who is accused of Mr Kohli’s manslaughter.

In a message recovered from the boy’s phone, the court heard that he wrote: “I watched him pull a knife out on a girl and hit her. I did not mean to batter him. My anger turned in.”

A friend of the boy told police that the defendant said that he only meant to punch Mr Kohli once to his face “to teach him not to do it again” but instead he “let his anger out”.

Prosecution barrister Harpreet Sandhu KC said: “They had to think of a way to justify the violence which had been used by (the boy) against Mr Kohli and which had been encouraged by (the girl).

“To justify what they had done they made up an account. The account was that Mr Kohli had pulled a knife on (the girl).

“It was not Mr Kohli’s habit to carry a knife, no knife was recovered from the clothing that Mr Kohli was wearing at the time, and no knife was recovered from Franklin Park.

“The truth is, we suggest, that there was not a knife, and if there was not a knife, Mr Kohli did not pull a knife out on (the girl).”

Mr Sandhu told the court that the boy knew the police would be looking for him and messaged his mother saying: “Police are looking for me because of Franklin. I can’t come back tonight, I will explain when I have a chance. I’m sorry.”

The boy also searched for “Franklin Park” on Google the day after the alleged attack and read a BBC news article about Mr Kohli, jurors heard.

They were also told that the boy created a Snapchat group with three other children who were at the park on the day of the assault and asked which of them had been arrested.

The prosecutor told the court that one of Mr Kohli’s sons had arrived at the scene quickly after the assault.

He said: “When he arrived at the park Mr Kohli was on the ground and in obvious pain, indeed Mr Kohli told his son he was in pain.

“He told his son he had been hit, he pointed to his left side, and in particular the area of his ribs. He also pointed to the left side of his neck.”

The court heard that Mr Kohli’s daughter also arrived at the park and “repeatedly” heard Mr Kohli say his neck was hurting and when she asked what happened, he replied: “I have been punched in the face and they have kicked me.”

He also told his daughter that he had been called a “p***”, the court heard.

Mr Sandhu told the jury: “The prosecution say that (the boy’s) accounts to others fit with what Mr Kohli had said in the immediate aftermath of the attacks upon him.

“Taken individually and together those accounts show that (the boy) did not just push Mr Kohli over but that (the boy) subjected him to an intense attack.

“(The boy) did that because he intended to cause Mr Kohli really serious harm, that is supported by (the boy’s) own telephone activity.”

The court heard that Mr Kohli was taken to the Leicester Royal Infirmary before being transferred to Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham where it “was not possible to save him”.

Mr Kohli’s cause of death was given as a neck injury causing spinal cord damage and he had a number of other injuries including fractured ribs, the jury heard.

The prosecutor added: “Those injuries are consistent with what Mr Kohli said about being pushed and then being kicked and punched when he was on the ground. They are also consistent, we suggest, with what (the boy) said to others.”

Mr Sandhu said that the girl has claimed that in the past Mr Kohli had called her a “bastard” and “bitch”, the court heard.

The jury heard she told police that the pensioner had lifted his hands at her while standing a couple of inches away to “show that he was going to hurt” her, before the boy “pushed him out the way” which caused him to fall to the floor.

When asked by police why she took videos of the boy assaulting Mr Kohli, she said “I don’t know, just to show (the boy) what he had done from like far away”, jurors were told.

In a letter written by the boy, after he had been charged, to a professional who was working with him, he wrote: “I am so nervous, well scared and worried. I accept I did it and I’m doing time, I’m just scared about how long I have to do.”

He also said in the letter that his girlfriend had broken up with him and he had been “struggling with that”, so he “needed anger etc releasing”.

Mr Sandhu said: “The prosecution suggest that he did not mention acting in self-defence or in defence of another because at the time the violence he used had nothing to do with self-defence or defence of another. He was acting out in anger.”

When the professional told the boy that the contents of his letter would need to be disclosed, the youth said “That’s my manslaughter plea gone”, Mr Sandhu told the jury.

The trial continues.