A UK judge on Thursday (5) sentenced a 15-year-old boy to seven years' detention for the "wicked" killing of an octogenarian grandfather but a girl who filmed the attack on her phone was spared custody.
The killing of Bhim Kohli, 80, as he walked his dog in a park on the outskirts of Leicester in central England last September is one of several cases of youth violence that has shocked the UK in past months.
The boy, who was 14 and wearing a balaclava at the time of the killing punched, kicked and racially abused Kohli during the attack.
He suffered a broken neck and rib fractures and died in hospital the following day after being found lying on the ground by his children.
The girl, then aged 12, encouraged the assault and laughed as she filmed it on a phone.
She later stored a series of clips of the violence in a password protected folder on Snapchat.
Passing sentence, judge Mark Turner told the boy: "What you did was wicked. You made a cowardly and violent attack on an elderly man."
He sentenced the girl, now aged 13, to a three-year youth rehabilitation order and an evening curfew.
Kohli's family told the court in a victim impact statement they were haunted by how his attackers left him "on his own, helpless and in pain" just a short distance from his home.
"Losing dad in these cruel, violent and deeply shocking circumstances feels like our hearts have been pulled apart," his daughter Susan Kohli said.
The teenagers, who cannot be named because of their ages, were convicted of manslaughter in April following a six-week trial.
The boy had also been charged with murder but was found not guilty on that count.
Speaking outside Leicester Crown Court after the sentencing, Susan Kohli added that she was "angry and disappointed" by the leniency of the sentences.
"I believe on that day the two teenagers made a choice. The teenage boy chose to attack my dad and the girl chose to film him being attacked. They knew what they were doing," she told reporters.
"I feel angry and disappointed that the sentence they have both received today does not, I believe, reflect the severity of the crime they committed," she said.
Evidence retrieved from the girl's phone showed harrowing footage of the attack on Kohli, which was presented to the jury. The boy admitted to witnesses that he had assaulted the elderly man and wrote a letter to a social worker confessing what he had done.
The CPS presented CCTV evidence of their actions before and after the attack, including audio of them joking about the assault to friends.
"In charging these two young defendants, the CPS determined that they were both criminally responsible for Mr Kohli's death, but with different roles. They were prosecuted under the principle of joint enterprise. Both actively participated in the incident that led to Kohli's death, but in different ways," the CPS said.
(Agencies)
Bags of rubbish and bins overflow on the pavement in the Sparkbrook area on June 02, 2025 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
