A boy who slapped an 80-year-old man with a slider shoe as he cowered on the ground before punching and kicking him is facing jail after being convicted of manslaughter.
The teenager was just 14 when he donned a balaclava and viciously attacked retired factory owner Bhim Kohli as he walked his dog Rocky in a park next to his home in September last year.
The baby-faced teen was acquitted of murder by a jury at Leicester Crown Court on Tuesday but found guilty of the lesser charge following a six-week trial.
A girl, who was just 12 at the time, filmed part of the attack and could be heard laughing in the video as the pensioner cowered on his knees was also found guilty of manslaughter after prosecutors said she ‘encouraged the violence’.
The pair cannot be named because of their age.
The boy, now 15 showed no emotion while the girl, 13 cried in the dock as the verdicts were handed down after the jury deliberated for more than six hours.
Family members sobbed, with one walking out of the court in tears. The teenagers will be sentenced next month when a judge will consider lifting their anonymity.
Judge Mr Justice Turner granted the girl bail but said it was ‘no indication’ of what would be decided when she is sentenced. The boy was remanded in custody.
In an emotional statement delivered on the court steps Mr Kohli’s daughter Susan paid tribute to her ‘amazing’ father who was ‘brutally and cruelly’ taken away.

Bhim Kohli was attacked as he walked his dog Rocky in a park next to his home in September last year
Bhim Kohli on the way to the park with his dog Rocky before he was killed
Mr Kohli’s dog Rocky was unharmed in the attack
Describing the day of the attack she told how they were alerted to what had happened and went to the park to help.
‘He was screaming out; he was in that much pain – it was horrendous, we have never seen him like that before,’ she said. ‘We all thought he would go to hospital to be treated and he would then be fine. We never imagined he wouldn’t return home.’
She said listening to trial and being shown the videos of their father being attacked would never leave them.
‘We feel anger and disgust towards the teenagers who took dad away from us,’ she said.
‘They humiliated an 80-year-old man, assaulted him, filmed it and laughed at him.
‘The boy, who told witnesses he had anger problems and couldn’t stop, used violence so severe that he broke three of dad’s ribs and neck which caused trauma to his spinal column.
‘Videos of the incident were filmed and shockingly found on the girl’s phone. Dad did not deserve this, and we wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone else.
‘One of the videos showed dad on his knees being hit over the head with the boy’s slider.
Mr Kohli was beaten with a slider during the vicious attack that killed him
Mr Kohli’s dog Rocky. He was walking his pet when he was attacked at Franklin Park, Leicester
‘A loud horrible slapping sound is heard when the boy struck dad. Hearing the girl laugh at this assault on dad is utterly disgusting. This sound plays over and over in our heads.
‘Also captured on video is dad’s attempt to call for help as he shouted out for his grandson. We didn’t hear his call for help and this upsets us deeply. We can’t put into words the pain we feel every day, and this has magnified during the trial.’
She said he was an ‘amazing’ man who loved life and who never took himself seriously, and despite his age and how frail he looked, was healthy and very active. He had three allotment plots where he grew lots of fruit and vegetables which he would share them with the family, friends and neighbours.
She added: ‘He was the person who knitted our family together and we miss him every second of every day.
‘Our house feels so empty without him and will never be the same. The area we have loved for so many years and called ‘home’ feels so different now and we will never feel safe.
‘Having happened only a minute’s walk of where we live is something we cannot get away from and it is a constant reminder. Every time my mum opens the front door she thinks about what happened to her husband.’
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Sinski, from the East Midlands Special Operations Unit Murder Investigation Team, said: ‘Bhim Kohli was simply doing what he did every day, walking his dog on the park that was just yards from his own front door.
‘But instead of being able to enjoy an evening stroll with Rocky on a warm summer’s day, he was confronted by a teenage boy, who was encouraged by a teenage girl, attacked him and left him in agony on the floor.’
Kelly Matthews from the Crown Prosecution Service said the incident shocked the community of Leicester and beyond.
Grandfather Bhim Kohli, 80, was described as ‘loving and caring’ by his family after his death
Mr Kohli’s wife Stander laying floral tributes at the scene where he died
She said: ‘We have shown in this trial that these young defendants were responsible for Mr Kohli’s death – in an unprovoked attack on an innocent man. They filmed the incident and laughed and bragged about it afterwards.’
Mr Kohli was discovered lying in agony in Leicester’s Franklin Park- just yards from his home – by neighbours and his son and daughter.
He had been racially abused and struck around the face with the plastic sandal as he cowered on his knees before being kicked and punched.
He was taken to hospital where he died the next day. A post-mortem examination revealed the cause of Mr Kohli’s death to be a neck injury ‘causing trauma to the spinal cord’. He also suffered broken ribs.
Prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu KC told jurors the boy had used ‘gratuitous’ and ‘intense’ violence before leaving his victim for dead.
He said he had no reason to hit the ‘defenceless’ elderly man who, because he was on the ground, was in a vulnerable position but his ‘instinct’ was to use violence.
Mr Sandhu said the girl knew what would happen when she pointed the elderly man out to the boy. ‘She knew there would be violence and she had a desire to capture it – and capturing it provided encouragement for the violence to be meted out,’ he said.
The trial heard the boy carried out the racist attack after his girlfriend broke up with him and he needed ‘anger releasing’.
Mr Kohli was killed in a park just his metres from his home
Aerial pictures of the scene taken after Mr Kohli was attacked in September last year
He went on the run and later tried to claim Mr Kohli had pulled a knife in an attempt to justify the violence. But Mr Kohli’s family said he never carried a knife, and no knife was found at the scene.
The girl had a picture of Mr Kohli on her phone, taken a week before the attack, and pointed him out to the boy when they saw him in the park following previous run ins with him.
The photograph of Mr Kohli was at around the same time of day as he was attacked, with prosecutors accusing her of keeping the image on her phone so she could ‘target him’.
The court heard the girl regularly ‘recorded violence’ on her mobile phone, and had dozens of other recordings showing children fighting each other and another where an unidentified victim was called a ‘P***‘ and had something thrown over him.
The three video clips of the attack on Mr Kohli were recovered from the girl’s mobile phone in a section of Snapchat called ‘my eyes only’ which requires a code for access, which the prosecution said was an attempt to hide the evidence.
She was accused of ‘egging’ on the boy, and remained with him during the attack to ‘support’ him when other teenagers they were with ran away.
In a police interview she was asked if the video showing Mr Kohli being slapped with the shoe had given her enjoyment. She replied: ‘Not really but it was a bit funny at the time’.
The girl, who was dressed in black trousers, white shirt and black jumper with her hair tied up and was supported by her mother in court, showed no emotion as she was found guilty.
Flowers left at the entrance to Franklin Park, Leics., where Bhim Kohli, 80, was attacked
Floral tributes at Franklin Park, Leics., where dog walker Bhim Kohli, 80, was attacked
The boy, who looked at his mother in the public gallery as the verdicts were delivered, wore a pale blue tracksuit.
He had admitted to having ‘anger issues’ but claimed he slapped Mr Kohli in the face with his slider out of ‘instinct’ after they tussled over the shoe and ‘ran at him’ before pushing him as he believed the elderly man was going to hit his friend.
But the court heard the boy sent messages admitting to the attack including one which read: ‘I didn’t mean to batter him.’
In reply to a message saying an 80-year-old had been ‘smacked up’ in the park, the boy wrote: ‘I did that. …I didn’t mean to batter him. It was one hit and then my anger turned in.’
Before the attack on Mr Kohli, the boy had taken a balaclava out of his Gucci bag and put it on ‘in preparation for violence’. Asked why he had a balaclava or ‘bally’ as he called it, he replied simply, ‘fashion’.
The court heard that after the attack he searched for news stories about it and then, ten seconds later, for Adele tickets. When asked by one friend in a message if he was ‘s***ing it’ – slang for worrying about something – he replied with two laughing emojis and wrote ‘Nah, chilling bro’.
At 8.21pm on September 2, about 25 minutes before Kohli died, he sent a laughing emoji to friends and said: ‘Feds know it is me. Got my name and picture.’
The court was told that after his arrest, he wrote a letter to a support worker, in which he said he regretted what he had done. In it he wrote: ‘My ex broke up with me and I was struggling with that so I kind of just needed anger etc releasing’.
He went on to say: ‘I’m so nervous well scared and worried. I accept I did it and I am doing time. I am just scared about how long I have to do.’
When told the letter would have to be disclosed he replied: ‘That’s my manslaughter plea gone’.
Due to prior police contact with Mr Kohli, the Leicestershire police made a mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). The IOPC decided this investigation should be carried out locally by the force. The investigation report has been submitted to the IOPC for them to review.