Boy accused of murdering pensioner panicked at sight of police car, jury told
Two children are on trial accused of killing Bhim Kohli, 80, who was injured in a park near Leicester.
A boy accused of punching and kicking an elderly dog walker in a park and slapping him in the face with his slider “panicked” when he saw a police car after the attack and asked to swap shoes with someone, a murder trial has heard.
The 15-year-old boy told Leicester Crown Court he has anger issues but denied that he left Bhim Kohli, 80, for dead in a park after racially abusing and beating him.
Mr Kohli walked a short distance from his home to Franklin Park in Braunstone Town, near Leicester, before he was left lying on the ground having sustained a spinal injury and fractured ribs on September 1 last year and died in hospital the following day.
The 15-year-old youth denies Mr Kohli’s murder and an alternative count of manslaughter, while a 13-year-old girl who filmed part of the attack while laughing is accused of manslaughter on the basis she “encouraged” the alleged violence, the court heard.
Neither child can be named because of their ages.
Prosecution barrister Harpreet Sandhu KC continued his cross-examination of the boy, who stood in the witness box wearing a white shirt tucked into grey tracksuit bottoms, on Friday.
The boy told the jury that after he left Franklin Park, he went with friends to Braunstone Park, which is about a mile away, where he is alleged to have been “bragging” about the attack and saw a police car drive past, causing him to panic.
The boy denied the reason he panicked when he saw the vehicle was because he had left Mr Kohli for dead after punching and kicking him.
Mr Sandhu asked the defendant: “When you panicked, did you ask someone else to swap clothes with you?”
The boy said: “It was shoes, but that was the only thing.”
Asked why he wanted to swap shoes, the boy said: “I’m not sure, I just panicked because of what happened – the incident at Franklin Park. I hit him with my slider, and pushing him”
The boy denied that he wanted to change shoes so he could run away.
The teenager has told the court he slapped Mr Kohli in the face with his slider out of “instinct” after they were tussling over the shoe and “ran at him”, before pushing him over to defend the 13-year-old girl because he thought the elderly man was going to push or hit her.
The court heard that in messages sent the day after the attack, the boy had told a friend he had “banged” Mr Kohli and in another, he wrote “I didn’t mean to batter him”.
He told the jury he lied to his friends in these messages.
Mr Sandhu said: “You battered him, didn’t you? You banged him, didn’t you? You beat him up, didn’t you, using your fists and using your feet?”
The boy replied: “No.”
The jury was told that one of the boy’s friends heard the defendant say he “killed an 80-year-old man or put him in intensive care” and just “let his anger out on him”.
In court, the boy denied that he let his anger out on Mr Kohli.
Mr Sandhu said: “When you were angry, you pushed Bhim Kohli with full force didn’t you? And you punched him, and you kicked him.
“You did those things because you were angry and because you could not stop. When you were angry, Bhim Kohli was called a Paki.”
The boy denied these allegations.
In a letter to his intervention worker, the court heard the boy wrote “I did it and I accept I’m doing time” and “I kinda just needed anger etc releasing”.
Asked what he accepted doing in this letter, the boy said: “The incident with Mr Kohli.”
The court heard that in the letter, the boy also wrote: “I f****** hate what I did. I regret it so much. I have flashbacks of that day and it just upsets me.”
The boy said he regretted “only pushing him”, and said he did not punch or kick the man.
The jury heard that in messages to his friends, the boy also said that Mr Kohli had pulled out a knife and hit a girl, which he told the court was also a lie.
Asked why he lied to his friends, the boy said: “I panicked and didn’t want anyone to think bad of me.”
Mr Sandhu asked: “Why would they think bad of you? Because he died? He died because of what you did, do you agree?”
The boy replied: “Yes.”
Mr Sandhu said: “You also say that Bhim Kohli had done something bad. Did you make up that Bhim Kohli had done something bad in order to explain why you had done something bad?”
The defendant replied: “Yes.”
The trial continues.
