Park attack victim 'made slapping motion at girl'

Bhim Kohli died of a neck injury on 2 September, after being attacked the day before

An 80-year-old who was fatally injured in a park hit a boy on the back of his legs with a shoe and raised his arms in a "slapping motion" at a girl, a murder trial has heard.

Bhim Kohli died in hospital after being attacked in Franklin Park in Braunstone Town near Leicester on 1 September last year.

A 15-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, who cannot be named because of their ages, are on trial at Leicester Crown Court accused of killing him.

The girl, who is accused of manslaughter, gave evidence on Monday and was questioned about her relationship with her co-defendant.

The 15-year-old boy denies murdering Mr Kohli by kicking and punching him and denies an alternative count of manslaughter.

The defendants - who were 12 and 14 at the time - had known each other for about a month by 1 September, the girl said.

Mr Kohli was attacked near his home in Franklin Park, the court heard

The girl, who filmed part of the attack while laughing, has denied his manslaughter, the court heard.

She told the court she had seen Mr Kohli two or three times before 1 September.

On one occasion, she said, she had been near a group of boys in the park who were throwing apples at him, following which she said Mr Kohli swore at her and her friend.

She also told the court that on another occasion, she saw an altercation between Mr Kohli and one of her friends.

"I don't actually know how it started but he [Mr Kohli] was hitting my friend with a stick," she said, adding she had tried to walk away.

On 1 September, the girl was sitting on a bench with friends when one of them spotted Mr Kohli and said "something along the lines of, 'there's the man who hit [our friend] with a stick'," the girl told court.

She said she was still on the bench when her co-defendant approached Mr Kohli and said she saw the man pick up the boy's slider while on his knees.

"I saw Mr Kohli like hit [the boy] with the slider to the back of this legs," she said.

"[The boy] grabbed the slider and then hit Mr Kohli round the head with it."

Asked why she took a video clip of Mr Kohli lying motionless on the floor, the girl said she did not know, and denied trying to encourage her co-defendant to use violence.

After the initial incident between Mr Kohli and her co-defendant, the girl said Mr Kohli had approached her, and raised his arms in a "slapping motion".

She said she believed Mr Kohli was going to hit her, before the boy ran over and "pushed" him.

Girl denies bragging

She added she had not called for help when Mr Kohli was on the floor because she "just wanted to get out the park" and did not think Mr Kohli was badly injured because he had "no visible injuries".

Messages between the girl and one of her friends, read in court, shared a discussion about what she had told her co-defendant about an unrelated, planned fight.

During cross examination, Harpreet Sandhu KC, prosecuting, asked why she had been talking to the boy about fighting, to which she replied, "I don't know".

She added fighting "just got brought up" and had "no idea" why the boy was interested.

The girl denied bragging or trying to impress her co-defendant.

Conversations between the co-defendants on social media showed they had sent emoticons depicting a smiley face and hearts to each other.

The girl denied they were more than friends or that either of them wished to be.

The court heard in evidence from the girl's friends that the boy thought he was "hard" or thought he was "some bad man".

Mr Sandhu asked the girl if she knew what the boy was like or whether she shared the same thoughts about him, to which she said "no".

"Does [the boy] think he's hard?" Mr Sandhu said asked, with the girl replying "I don't know".

The court was shown a number of videos from the girl's phone, including two showing a violent altercation between two other girls and CCTV footage of a separate altercation between her and a boy.

In one video, children could be seen fighting and a boy was seen on the floor while being called a racial slur.

The girl denied fighting was a "good thing".