UPDATE: |Teenagers found guilty of ‘brutally’ killing dog-walking pensioner in park News

Footage recorded by one of the perpetrators showed the elderly man calling out for help

A 15-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl have been convicted of “brutally” killing an elderly dog walker in a park in September of last year.

Bhim Kohli, 80, had been walking his dog Rocky just yards away from his home when he was pounced on by a balaclava-clad boy.

The 13-year-old girl laughed at the defenceless man as he was beaten and racially abused, while also filming the act on her phone.

Mr Kohli was left on the ground before his children found him severely injured in Franklin Park, Braunstone Town, near Leicester, on the evening of September 1 last year.

He suffered a broken neck and fractured ribs from being kicked and punched. He died from his injuries in hospital the following day.

The teenagers, who cannot be named because of their ages, were unanimously convicted of manslaughter at Leicester Crown Court on Tuesday.

The boy was cleared of murder by the jury.

Speaking outside the court after the verdicts were returned, Mr Kohli’s daughter, Susan Kohli, said her father was “brutally and cruelly” taken from his family.

She said: “We feel angry and disgust towards the teenagers who took dad away from us. They humiliated him, an 80-year-old man, assaulted him, filmed it and laughed at him.”

“Dad did not deserve this and wouldn’t wish this on anyone else.

“He was the person who knitted our family together and we miss him every second of every day. Our home feels so empty without him and will never be the same.”

The boy told the jury he slapped Mr Kohli with his shoe out of “instinct” after they had a tussle, which caused the elderly man to fall to his knees.

He admitted to pushing Mr Kohli over to “defend” the girl, who claimed Mr Kohli came towards her with his arms raised in a “slapping motion”, but denied kicking or punching him.

In the prosecution’s closing speech, Harpreet Sandhu KC called the boy’s actions “gratuitous violence against a man who was defenceless”.

After the verdicts were read out, Mr Justice Turner further remanded the 15-year-old boy in custody and granted the 13-year-old girl conditional bail.

He thanked the jury for their “obvious hard work” and adjourned sentencing to a two-day hearing on May 19 and 20.

The 13-year-old girl filmed a series of video clips in which Mr Kohli was slapped with the shoe by the masked boy, another where the man was walking towards the exit of the park calling for help, and the grandfather lying motionless on the ground.

She also took a photograph of Mr Kohli on her phone the week before the alleged incident but denied that she used this to “target” him.

Police also recovered a video from her phone of a group of children “confronting” an unknown man on a separate occasion, who was hit to the back of the head and called a “P*** bastard” while she was heard laughing.