UK teen jailed for 7 years for killing 80-year-old Indian-origin man

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. I am sure you regret it, but you still say it wasn’t your fault. The sooner you realise this, the better,” Justice Turner told the boy.

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. 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, had said following the teenage convictions.

“We have shown in this trial that these young defendants were responsible for 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 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.

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 Kohli’s death, but with different roles. They were prosecuted under the principle of joint enterprise,” the CPS said.