The harrowing final moments of Bhim Kohli were laid bare in court as those on scene recalled the 80-year-old ‘repeatedly screaming out in pain’ after he was allegedly beaten at a park
The daughter of an 80-year-old man who was allegedly beaten to death while out walking his dog said he had “never cried out in pain like that before” as she rushed to his aid, a court heard.
Bhim Kohli, who was “as fit as a fiddle” according to his family, set off on a short walk from his home to Franklin Park in Braunstone Town, near Leicester on September 1 last year. He was then allegedly racially abused and called a “P***” before being slapped in the face with a shoe by a 15-year-old boy donning a balaclava.
As the attack unfolded, the grandfather was filmed on a girl’s phone, a trial at Leicester Crown Court heard. Mr Kohli died in hospital the following day after having suffered a spinal cord injury and fractured ribs.
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. Due to their ages, neither of the children can be named.
Mr Kohli’s heartbroken family, as well as police officers and paramedics that raced to the scene on the day of the attack, read out statements out in court, including one from his daughter Susan Kohli, who was there in the immediate aftermath.
“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 also 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
