CCTV footage captured two children running from a park after allegedly racially abusing an elderly man who was kicked and punched yards from his home, and who died the following day, a murder trial has heard.
A jury was told that footage captured a female voice saying “Have you got anger issues or something?” and a male voice saying “I smacked him”, as a group of children walked away from Franklin Park in Braunstone Town, near Leicester, after Bhim Kohli, 80, was attacked.
Mr Kohli had walked his dog a short distance from his home to the park on September 1 last year where he was slapped in the face with a shoe by a boy wearing a balaclava and was filmed being attacked on a girl’s phone, the court was told.
Police officers attended the scene in Franklin Park (Jacob King/PA)
Leicester Crown Court was shown footage of two children running from the scene after Mr Kohli was injured and left lying motionless on the ground, alleged to be a 15-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl who are on trial.
The boy is charged with the pensioner’s murder and one count of manslaughter, while the girl is charged with Mr Kohli’s manslaughter.
Neither child can be named because of their ages and both deny the charges laid against them.
At 5.38pm on the day of the attack, the prosecution said a doorbell camera video showed the boy and girl leaving the boy’s home with another child before they meet two girls to form a group of five, all of whom then enter Franklin Park at 6.21pm, three minutes after Mr Kohli did.
Mr Kohli was seen on CCTV footage slowly walking from his home in Bramble Way to the entrance of Franklin Park with his dog following closely behind him.
Prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu KC told the court: “Bhim Kohli entered the park, he stopped to engage with an unknown person. He then took a right-hand turn walking into the park through the trees and out of the view of this CCTV.”
Other videos shown to the jury include Mr Kohli on his knees being slapped in the face with a slider by a boy wearing a balaclava, the attacker shouting at the elderly man after he gets up from the ground, and the pensioner laying motionless on his side.
The jury had heard that when asked by his daughter at the scene what had happened, Mr Kohli replied: “I have been punched in the face and they have kicked me.”
Jurors were told the attack happened while Mr Kohli was walking his dog (Jacob King/PA)
He also told her that he had been called a “p***”, the court heard.
Mr Sandhu told the jury that two children in the group were seen leaving the park before Mr Kohli was assaulted, then another girl was seen running from the park, and then finally the two defendants were captured leaving the scene after Mr Kohli was lying on the ground.
Mr Sandhu said: “(The boy) and (the girl) run out from the park and continue down Bramble Way. (The boy) brought his hands to his head as they approached (the other children).”
The prosecutor showed the jury footage from various CCTV cameras of the children then walking a distance of a mile from Franklin Park to Braunstone Park.
In one clip shown to the jury, a male voice can be heard saying “He whacked his head off a log” before a female voice replied “Oh I know, I saw that – it goes ‘doosh’”, and at the same time, the court heard, the girl defendant made a “gesture movement” with her head.
The trial was being held at Leicester Crown Court (Lucy Bogustawski/PA)
A female voice was then heard to say: “Oh gosh, it’s getting worse. Is there anything else you need to tell us before it gets worse. Just tell it us now.”
Another female voice asked “Have you got anger issues or something?” the court heard, before a male voice said “I smacked him”.
The court heard that Mr Kohli was taken to the Leicester Royal Infirmary before being transferred to Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham where it “was not possible to save him”, and he died the following day on September 2.
The trial continues.