The daughter of an 80-year-old man killed in Leicestershire has expressed disappointment after the Court of Appeal declined to increase the sentence of a teenage boy convicted of his manslaughter. Susan Kohli said she felt the sentencing guidelines needed to be changed to hold young offenders more accountable for their actions.
Bhim Kohli died last September after being assaulted by two teenagers while walking his dog near his home in Braunstone Town. The boy, 15 at sentencing, received a seven-year custodial term after being found guilty of manslaughter in April. His accomplice, a girl aged 13, was given a three-year rehabilitation order with a six-month curfew and community service. Neither can be named for legal reasons.
Speaking after the appeal hearing, Susan Kohli said: 'We need to go to parliament to get these guidelines changed, to hold these youths responsible for what they do. We should not have to lose somebody else to these youngsters.' She alleged the attack was racially motivated, a claim both teenagers denied during their trial.
The Solicitor General, Lucy Rigby, referred the boy's sentence to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient sentence scheme, but the court upheld the original term. Lady Justice Macur, alongside Mrs Justice Cutts and Mr Justice Murray, ruled the sentence was 'neither unduly lenient nor excessive', describing it as 'very significant and necessarily so'. The boy's defence team had also sought to reduce the sentence, arguing it was manifestly excessive, but the court rejected that claim.
During the trial, footage from the girl's phone showed the boy, wearing a balaclava, assaulting Kohli while she laughed. Another video captured an unknown man being called a racial slur and hit by a group of children, with the girl laughing in the background. Kohli, who suffered a broken neck and three broken ribs, told a paramedic he had been subjected to slurs during the attack. He died in hospital the following day.
