A boy who slapped an 80-year-old man with a slider shoe as he cowered on the ground before punching and kicking him is facing jail after being convicted of manslaughter.
The teenager was just 14 when he donned a balaclava and viciously attacked retired factory owner Bhim Kohli as he walked his dog Rocky in a park next to his home in September last year.
The baby-faced teen was acquitted of murder by a jury at Leicester Crown Court on Tuesday but found guilty of the lesser charge.
A girl aged 12 who filmed part of the attack and could be heard laughing in the video as the pensioner cowered on his knees was also found guilty of manslaughter after prosecutors said she ‘encouraged the violence’.
The pair, now aged 15 and 13, showed no emotion as the verdicts were handed down after the jury deliberated for more than six hours.
Family members sobbed, with one walking out of the court in tears. The teenagers will be sentenced in June when a judge will consider lifting their anonymity.
Judge Mr Justice Turner granted the girl bail but said it was ‘no indication’ of what would be decided when she is sentenced. The boy was remanded in custody.
Mr Kohli was discovered lying in agony in Leicester’s Franklin Park- just yards from his home – by neighbours and his son and daughter.
He had been racially abused and struck around the face with the plastic sandal as he cowered on his knees before being kicked and punched.
He was taken to hospital where he died the next day. A post-mortem examination revealed the cause of Mr Kohli’s death to be a neck injury ‘causing trauma to the spinal cord’. He also suffered broken ribs.
Grandfather Bhim Kohli, 80, was described as ‘loving and caring’ by his family after his death
Mr Kohli was beaten with a slider during the vicious attack that killed him
Mr Kohli’s dog Rocky. He was walking his pet when he was attacked at Franklin Park, Leicester
Prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu KC told jurors the boy had used ‘gratuitous’ and ‘intense’ violence before leaving his victim for dead.
He said he had no reason to hit the ‘defenceless’ elderly man who, because he was on the ground, was in a vulnerable position but his ‘instinct’ was to use violence.
Mr Sandhu said the girl knew what would happen when she pointed the elderly man out to the boy. ‘She knew there would be violence and she had a desire to capture it – and capturing it provided encouragement for the violence to be meted out,’ he said.
The trial heard the boy carried out the racist attack after his girlfriend broke up with him and he needed ‘anger releasing’.
He went on the run and later tried to claim Mr Kohli had pulled a knife in an attempt to justify the violence. But Mr Kohli’s family said he never carried a knife, and no knife was found at the scene.
The girl had a picture of Mr Kohli on her phone, taken a week before the attack, and pointed him out to the boy when they saw him in the park following previous run ins with him.
The photograph of Mr Kohli was at around the same time of day as he was attacked, with prosecutors accusing her of keeping the image on her phone so she could ‘target him’.
The court heard the girl regularly ‘recorded violence’ on her mobile phone, and had dozens of other recordings showing children fighting each other and another where an unidentified victim was called a ‘Paki’ and had something thrown over him.
Mr Kohli’s wife Stander laying floral tributes at the scene where he died
Mr Kohli was killed in a park just his metres from his home
Aerial pictures of the scene taken after Mr Kohli was attacked in September last year
The three video clips of the attack on Mr Kohli were recovered from the girl’s mobile phone in a section of Snapchat called ‘my eyes only’ which requires a code for access, which the prosecution said was an attempt to hide the evidence.
She was accused of ‘egging’ on the boy, and remained with him during the attack to ‘support’ him when other teenagers they were with ran away.
In a police interview she was asked if the video showing Mr Kohli being slapped with the shoe had given her enjoyment. She replied: ‘Not really but it was a bit funny at the time’.
The girl, who was dressed in black trousers, white shirt and black jumper with her hair tied up and was supported by her mother in court, showed no emotion as she was found guilty.
The boy, who looked at his mother in the public gallery as the verdicts were delivered, wore a pale blue tracksuit.
He had admitted to having ‘anger issues’ but claimed he slapped Mr Kohli in the face with his slider out of ‘instinct’ after they tussled over the shoe and ‘ran at him’ before pushing him as he believed the elderly man was going to hit his friend.
But the court heard the boy sent messages admitting to the attack including one which read: ‘I didn’t mean to batter him.’
In reply to a message saying an 80-year-old had been ‘smacked up’ in the park, the boy wrote: ‘I did that. …I didn’t mean to batter him. It was one hit and then my anger turned in.’
Flowers left at the entrance to Franklin Park, Leics., where Bhim Kohli, 80, was attacked
Floral tributes at Franklin Park, Leics., where dog walker Bhim Kohli, 80, was attacked
Before the attack on Mr Kohli, the boy had taken a balaclava out of his Gucci bag and put it on ‘in preparation for violence’. Asked why he had a balaclava or ‘bally’ as he called it, he replied simply, ‘fashion’.
The court heard that after the attack he searched for news stories about it and then, ten seconds later, for Adele tickets. When asked by one friend in a message if he was ‘shitting it’ – slang for worrying about something – he replied with two laughing emojis and wrote ‘Nah, chilling bro’.
At 8.21pm on September 2, about 25 minutes before Kohli died, he sent a laughing emoji to friends and said: ‘Feds know it is me. Got my name and picture.’
The court was told that after his arrest, he wrote a letter to a support worker, in which he said he regretted what he had done. In it he wrote: ‘My ex broke up with me and I was struggling with that so I kind of just needed anger etc releasing’.
He went on to say: ‘I’m so nervous well scared and worried. I accept I did it and I am doing time. I am just scared about how long I have to do.’
When told the letter would have to be disclosed he replied: ‘That’s my manslaughter plea gone’.
