Girl, 13, took photo of pensioner week before fatal incident, jury told
Two children are on trial at Leicester Crown Court accused of killing Bhim Kohli, 80.
A 13-year-old girl took a photograph of an elderly dog walker in a park a week before she filmed part of an alleged attack in which he was hit with a shoe and fatally injured, a court has been told.
Jurors heard that the girl, aged 12 at the time of the incident, denied that she kept the picture of Bhim Kohli, 80, on her phone so she could “target him” and denied that she pointed him out on the day of the fatal incident.
Leicester Crown Court heard that Mr Kohli had walked his dog a short distance from his home to Franklin Park in Braunstone Town, near Leicester, on September 1 last year when he sustained fractured ribs and a broken neck.
The pensioner died the following day from the effects of a spinal cord injury.
A 15-year-old boy is accused of punching and kicking Mr Kohli after he was filmed slapping the elderly man in the face with his slider shoe, and denies murder and an alternative count of manslaughter.
The teenage girl denies a charge of manslaughter and is accused of “encouraging” the violence by videoing the alleged attack and laughing.
Prosecution KC Harpreet Sandhu continued his cross-examination of the girl, who held orange fidget toys in the witness box, on Tuesday.
The jury was told that the photograph of Mr Kohli was taken at 6.24pm on August 24 in the same park where he was injured the following week.
Mr Sandhu said: “It shows Bhim Kohli has twigs in his hand or branches, quite a few of them. It looks as if he’s using both his hands to hold them and he’s walking. Who took that photograph?”
The girl replied: “I think it may have been me.”
Mr Sandhu asked: “Once you had that photograph on your phone it stayed there – why did you keep a photograph of Bhim Kohli on your phone?”, to which the girl replied: “No idea.”
The prosecutor continued: “What were you going to do with the photograph of Bhim Kohli? Did you keep it so you could show it to others? Did you keep it so you could tell others to look out for Bhim Kohli?”
The defendant said: “I don’t think so, no.”
Mr Sandhu asked: “Did you have it so you could target him with others? So that others and you could have a go at him when you next saw him?”
The girl replied: “No.”
The prosecutor asked the girl about the day of the fatal incident and said: “You saw Bhim Kohli didn’t you? When you saw him you recognised him, didn’t you?”
The girl replied: “Yes.”
She had previously told the court that she saw Mr Kohli hitting her friend with a “couple of sticks” on one occasion before the fatal incident, and a week or two before he died Mr Kohli called the girl a “bitch” when other children were throwing apples at him.
Mr Sandhu said to the defendant: “You were the one who had the photograph of Mr Kohli, you were the one who pointed him out to (the boy defendant) weren’t you? It’s because you pointed him out to (the boy) that he walked up to Mr Kohli. That’s what happened, isn’t it?”
The girl replied: “No.”
The prosecutor told the court that the time stamp on the image of Mr Kohli from a week before was almost exactly the same as the time when the group of children entered Franklin Park on the day of the fatal incident.
Mr Sandhu said: “Did you know Mr Kohli would be at the park at that time in the evening walking his dog?” to which the girl replied: “No.”
The barrister continued: “On the first of September when you walked into the park (the boy) was not wearing his balaclava.
“Four minutes and 40 seconds later (the boy) is wearing his balaclava, we know that because of the clip you have taken on your phone.
“Did he put his balaclava on after you had pointed Mr Kohli out?”
The girl said: “I did not point Mr Kohli out and I don’t know. I can’t remember.”
Mr Sandhu continued: “Mr Kohli was on his hands and knees because of something (the boy) had done. You thought there was more violence to come and that is why you started recording isn’t it? That’s what you do, isn’t it, you record violence.”
She denied that she knew the boy was going to be violent towards the elderly man.
In a video clip recorded by the girl on a separate occasion, a group of children are seen “confronting” a man in a park before one hits the back of his head and another throws a water balloon at him before he is chased by them and called a “Paki bastard”.
The trial continues.
