A 15-YEAR-OLD boy accused of killing an 80-year-old man in a Leicester park told police, “I had my reasons, but I did it,” a court heard.
The boy is charged with murdering Bhim Kohli at Franklin Park, Braunstone Town, in September last year. A 13-year-old girl, also on trial, is accused of manslaughter. Both were 14 and 12 at the time and cannot be named due to their ages.
At Leicester Crown Court, transcripts of police interviews were read, BBC reported. Officers noted that after his arrest, the boy admitted responsibility, saying, “I did it, I did it. I have my reasons but I did it.”
He told police he had heard Kohli had previously pulled a knife on a friend of his co-defendant. On 1 September, he approached Kohli to ask if he was carrying a knife. When Kohli did not respond, he asked again.
The boy claimed Kohli swore at him and tried to hit him. He said he dodged it and hit Kohli back. Later, he admitted hitting Kohli three times on his arm and jaw but denied kicking him.
He said after walking away, Kohli approached his co-defendant with his hands raised, making him concerned for her safety. He ran at Kohli, pushed him over, and fell on top of him.
In his police statement, he said: “I didn’t want to hurt the male, he was the one who had become aggressive. He had taken photos of me and I even posed for them. I deeply regret the incident and was horrified to hear he died. I would like to express my sadness to his family and friends.”
The boy said he told a woman to call an ambulance because his phone battery was low. Asked why he did not use his friend’s phone, he said: “Because I didn’t want to be there.” He added, “I was panicked. He started it, I’ve already explained it.”
The court heard a paramedic at the scene reported that Kohli had said he was kicked and that “the kids” called him a racial slur. The boy denied using any racial slur.
The girl told police she was sitting on a bench away from the altercation but later went to see what was happening. She recorded the incident on her phone and was shown the footage in her interview.
Asked why she filmed, she said: “I don’t know, just to show [the boy] what he had done from far away.”
Describing the footage, she said the boy “slapped [Kohli] round the head with his slider [shoe].”
When asked if she enjoyed it, she replied: “Not really but it was a bit funny at the time.”
She said that after Kohli fell, “We just left. He was just laid on the floor and I think he was breathing pretty loud.”
The court heard that weeks before the incident, Kohli had apples thrown at him by teenagers in the park. The girl said Kohli thought she and her friends were with them and approached them. She claimed he had “something in his pocket” but admitted she did not see a knife.
She also said it was “spread around” that Kohli carried a pocket knife.
A teenage friend of the male defendant told the court he met him the day after the attack in a churchyard, where the defendant appeared “overwhelmed,” BBC reported.
“He was kind of shaking,” the witness said in his police interview. “He told me about it. He said that he was walking with his mates and he saw that man trying to do something to a young girl. When he saw that, he said he got really angry and started battering him.”
The boy told his friend he needed to “leave the area” and was “planning to go somewhere far, like a different city.”
A 14-year-old witness told jurors the defendant had spoken about his “anger issues” the day after the attack, ITV News reported.
“He said, ‘They know it’s me, they have got a full description, I have put a man in intensive care. He is basically dead.’”
The witness added: “He said he was only going to punch him once... but he said he just let his anger out and he couldn’t stop.”
The trial continues.
Lakshmi Mittal 
