The killing of an elderly dog walker was carried out by a teenager who ‘revelled in his reputation as a hard man’, according to the lead detective.
Bhim Kohli, 80, suffered a broken neck and fractured ribs after being kicked and punched by the balaclava-clad 15-year-old in Franklin Park, near Leicester, last September.
Some of his last moments were filmed by the boy’s friend, a 13-year-old girl, and show him being slapped with a slider, walking towards the park exit calling for help, and then lying motionless on the ground.
The grandfather died in hospital the following day.
The teenagers, who cannot be named because of their ages, were convicted of manslaughter at Leicester Crown Court on Tuesday. The boy was cleared of murder by the jury.
During the trial, jurors were told the boy wrote a letter to a support worker saying he hated what he had done and adding ‘I feel like my case is evil’.
It read: ‘I f****** hate what I did. I regret it so much. I have flashbacks of that day and it just upsets me.
‘I just want my freedom or even to go back and not do it.
‘I feel like my case is evil. I ain’t that type of person. I kinda just needed anger etc releasing.’
The letter went on to address the boy’s view of his own mental health, the court heard, adding: ‘I feel like I have let my mum down so much. I am 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.
‘I get upset at little things and sometimes little things can affect my mood and my whole day. I actually feel like I f***** up everything by coming here. Life’s f****** hard. I ain’t depressed but I ain’t really happy a lot of the time.
‘I have always got shit on my mind. For now, I’m just f****** stressed and worried about court, like my plea.’
Prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu KC told jurors evidence showed the boy went to another park and ‘was bragging’ about what had happened.
He said witness accounts of the teenager’s anger were a ‘running theme’ in the case.
The court heard the boy confessed to the attack in Snapchat messages to a friend and said he was going ‘on the run’ minutes before he was arrested hiding in a bush.
In one of the messages, the boy was asked by someone if he had ‘leathered’ Mr Kohli, to which he replied: ‘I watched him hit a girl and pull a knife out. So yeah.’
In another message to the boy, a friend said ‘someone smacked up an 80-year-old’, to which he was said to have replied: ‘I did that. I watched him pull a knife on a girl and hit her. I didn’t mean to batter him. I regret it man, I do.’
He also said he was ‘sorry for everything’, adding: ‘I f***** my life up. Everything is gone. I’m sorry bro.’
The court was told the boy’s mother pleaded with her son to come home at around 8pm the day after the attack after he messaged her to say he would not be returning because police were looking for him and he would ‘explain it’ later.
His mother said: ‘I love you all the world and more but if you don’t want me stressed just come home so it can be dealt with. You’re making it worse for yourself, just come home.’
The court heard the boy had made a number of Google searches before his arrest for ‘Franklin Park news’ and had read about details of the attack in a BBC article.
Speaking after the case, Detective Chief Inspector Mark Sinski said he was in no doubt social media played a role in the attack.
‘The proliferation and use of phones and social media messages features more and more in inquiries and certainly with young people who now live their lives via phones,’ he told the BBC.
‘The three videos on the phone showed this female defendant wanted to film violence and indeed encouraged it.
‘And when we looked at her phone and examined it further, chillingly there were numerous previous incidents where she had filmed violence and was encouraging violence.
‘The prosecution case was that was no coincidence, and that very much mirrored the attack on Mr Kohli.’
Det Ch Insp Sinski said the boy had Snapchat accounts under two names – one boasting of his punching power and another referring to using a disguise.
‘It was the prosecution case he revelled in his reputation as a hard man and his propensity to violence,’ he said.
‘So yes, social media did feature in this.’
Mr Kohli’s daughter said the teenagers had ‘humiliated’ her father in an ‘utterly disgusting’ attack.
Susan Kohli said: ‘Videos of the incident were filmed and shockingly found on the girl’s phone. Dad did not deserve this, and we wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone else.
‘One of the videos showed dad on his knees being hit over the head with the boy’s slider (shoe). A loud horrible slapping sound is heard when the boy struck dad.
‘Hearing the girl laugh at this assault on dad is utterly disgusting. This sound plays over and over in our heads.
‘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.’
Ms Kohli described her father as a ‘loving dad, grandad, brother and uncle’ who was ‘good fun to be around’.
She said: ‘He was the person who knitted our family together and we miss him every second of every day. Our home feels so empty without him and will never be the same.’
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