80-year-old racially abused before lying in agony in park, murder trial told

An 80-year-old man allegedly murdered as he walked his dog in a park was racially abused before he was forcefully shoved to the ground where he lay in agony, a jury has been told.

Bhim Kohli was allegedly racially abused and slapped in the face with a shoe by a boy wearing a balaclava and was filmed being attacked on a girl’s phone, a trial at Leicester Crown Court heard.

Mr Kohli, who was “as fit as a fiddle” according to family, had walked a short distance from his home to Franklin Park in Braunstone Town, near Leicester, on September 1 last year when he was attacked, the court heard.

He died in hospital the next day after suffering fractured ribs and a spinal cord injury.

A 15-year-old boy is on trial charged with one count of murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter, while a 13-year-old girl is charged with Mr Kohli’s manslaughter.

Neither of the children can be named because of their ages.

On the fourth day of the trial, written statements from Mr Kohli’s family members, police officers and paramedics were read out in court.

A written statement from his daughter Susan Kohli recalled the aftermath of the attack in the park.

“Whilst by his side, I knelt down and said, ‘Dad, what has happened?’. He screamed, ‘My neck. my neck, my neck, lift my neck’,” the statement said.

“This was not his normal tone. He was in agony, almost screaming. I have never heard him cry out in pain about anything like that before.”

In a second statement from Susan Kohli, she said: “While we were on Franklin Park my dad told me that they had called him a P***.”

Jurors heard an account of what allegedly happened, detailed in a police report by officers who had heard from a witness to the attack.

According to the report, prepared by the officers who had visited the witness, she described “seeing the boy forcefully pushing the old man on to his back”.

Jurors heard that the witness described the old man as “ending up on the floor screaming”.

A statement from Pc Rachelle Pereira referred to the pain Mr Kohli must have been in, as she said: “Mr Kohli was repeatedly screaming out in pain, shouting out ‘My neck’.”

Pc Pereira’s statement also referred to the witness and said she told the police officer she saw a young white boy wearing a black balaclava “shove the old man to the floor and sprint”.

A statement from Simranjeet Kohli, Mr Kohli’s grandson, who was in the park in the aftermath of the attack, said: “My granddad was yelling in pain as he was laying there.”

Paramedic Michael Thrift said in his statement it was clear from the outset that Mr Kohli appeared to be in a lot of pain.

“He was screaming throughout dealing with him,” he said.

According to Mr Thrift, Mr Kohli said that he was called a “P***” before he had been pushed and hit by the boy, but did not say who had called him that word.

“What sticks in my mind is that the patient appeared to be upset greatly by being called P***,” Mr Thrift said.

The trial continues.