Angry about lenient sentence for murder of elderly man in park

[Thomasina79]

7 years for the boy and three for the girl. This country is pathetic sometimes. A man lost his life while innocently walking his dog. Too sad

There's another thread about this. But you're not wrong at all. What disgusting and shocking behaviour, these people should not see the light of day until we can be confident they don't pose a risk to society.

Couldn’t face reading the whole article as it was so upsetting and depressing. That poor family. The incident itself and the sentencing are just horrendous.

It's because they are children so sentencing guidelines for children apply. The girl's lesser sentence will reflect her younger age and that whilst she is guilty of manslaughter by joint enterprise she didn't physically assault the victim.

Disgraceful. I cried when I read how he was killed.

I haven't read it. The news is so upsetting at the moment. I agree with you from what you've said.

The boy was aged 14 when he did this, and the girl 12 years old.

It's mind blowing.

I don't know what to think about the sentencing. I still can't get my head round their actions. At those ages.

Of course tt's not like there's an age when such violence IS understandable.

Just, how have they got themselves (how have other people got them) to that place where they behaved like that. At those ages.

And what on earth do we do with them now?

I find it strange that the offenders are given mitigation due to their young ages, but there isn’t the same acknowledgement of the victim’s elderly age/ frailty and corresponding vulnerability.
Surely that should be an aggravating factor.

Me too. Bhim Kohli's family must be devastated. It's just unbelievable.
The girl had taken photos of Mr Kohli previously, so it was hardly a random attack, there was clearly an element of playing to it.
The sentencing beggars belief, and I have a generally liberal attitude to crime and justice. I believe that offenders (particularly young offenders) deserve rehabilitation and understanding, and that prison purely as a means of punishment is ineffective. But I find this ridiculously lenient.

RIP Mr Kohli. I hope his family find peace somehow and that his memory is a blessing.

Exactly - these are not wide eyed innocent children. They targeted him previouly with racist abuse, and the boy deliberately beat an old man to death, while the girl filmed it on her phone while laughing.

There’s something very wrong with these young people, and I don’t think a few years locked away is going to cure that.

What that poor man went through.

It's a shockingly lenient sentence. And the judge's comment that racism had nothing to do with it is stunningly ignorant.

They behaved like animals.

Animals are better than that. They are monsters.

Are you saying an elderly persons life is worth more than a younger persons? If anything surely it’s worth less, the man was 80 so probably didn’t have many years left anyway. I’m not saying that makes it okay or less horrific, but are you really saying they should have got longer because the man was elderly than they would have if they’d killed a 20 year old, 40 year old, 60 year old?

RIP Bhim Kohli.

How can the boy's actions possibly classed as manslaughter"? A more clear-cut example of deliberate murder would be hard to imagine.

The girl didn't get three years in custody. She actually got given a three-year rehabilitation order and a six-month curfew ... which makes it even worse.

No, of course not - that’s not what I said.

I’m asking why if their (younger) ages are used as a reason to see them as vulnerable, and therefore less culpable, why isn’t the victim’s age (elderly) also taken into account and used as an aggravating factor, given he was frail and unable to properly defend himself.

That is a horrible post. An old man's life is worth less? Really?

Ultimately they were (are) both children, and children don’t just appear in the world as murderers - these children are the products of their families and upbringings. Is it right or just to punish children and young people with a sentence of a lifetime in jail, when they never stood a chance themselves and were very likely acting out the dysfunction and trauma they’d known their whole lives? 7 years is a significant period of time for the older boy to be rehabilitated, so whilst it may seem like a very short sentence if you’re thinking of it in the terms of adult sentencing, it’s half again of his lifetime to become a different person.

It's more about vulnerability surely. He wouldn't have been able to defend himself like someone younger might have.

Surprised that almost 10% have voted so far that YABU.

Wow.

As a Sikh woman who has experienced being called a f P* more than once in my lifetime I’m properly pissed off at the sentencing. Trust me we know when someone is being racist or not.
Just like in the wake of 9/11 when my turban wearing father used to get called Bin-Laden when going about his work and minding his own business. We know.
This feral pair should bloody rot in the slammer. Justice has not been done today.

Absolutely dreadful. This is not justice.

They might be children but they are capable of such horror I'm not sure that actually makes a difference 😔