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

My mum is 80. She is still active, travels, reads, looks after her cat, plays a musical instrument, is loved by her grandkids, siblings and neighbours, and even volunteers.

She has plenty to give, as did Mr Kohli.Not a bad age to go? No one else gets to make that judgement.

You know what, I think I might submit a request for review! No idea how mind you.

Well they didn’t see anywhere near 80 so I expect if alive they’d agree it’s not a bad age to go…

But hardly a good way to go, is it? Dying in terror and agony, knowing only hatred in your last moments in the world.

Absolutely disgusting that it’s not been classed as racism 😡 They are old enough to understand it is racist and wrong!

No they didn't. Animals don't behave nor act like that. I hate it when criminals are compared to animals.

Not a bad age to go?

wtf am I reading… you don’t get to make that judgement, and also it IS a bad WAY to go!!!

@MintChocCat You can ask for a sentencing review here.

Losing someone to illness or accident is hard enough to contend with.
But murder is a whole different ball game.The man suffered at the hands of those little savages and no matter what age he was he needn't have died in such circumstances.
Lots of us grew up in dysfunctional circumstances but don't go on to murder.

Well they're not going to "Jail" at all are they.

I’d be so depressed and traumatised if I knew my mum or Dad died in such a way.

These two horrors had 15 and 18years and they are 'only' 15 and 16yo. Shocking - mistaken identity for the dead teenagers - I have children of similar ages at 15 and 16yo - it is horrifying.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce3lxle15qvo

Clearly racially motivated but, whatever the motive, the sentence is too short for callous, violent murder.

Completely agree - we all know that life ends at some point but to be murdered for no good reason (if theres ever a good reason sorry - but I can't think of another way to phrase it) is something else completely. Especially when they had done nothing wrong and it was just 'random' - like those kids who were chased with the machetes and brutally murdered - mistaken identity - FFS - as if that excuses them. The two boys who have been imprisoned for 15+18years were inevitably involved with a lot older group who got them involved somehow - they probably thought it was cool to hang around with the older lot - but the 45yo who was inevitabley 'in charge' has had 38years. Let him rot - a bit of rope is required there tbh.

ETA - add the link for anyone who was interested
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce3lxle15qvo

I completely agree, it must be horrific for the family and it was an awful crime which is completely unjustified. I am not saying it is okay because he was old, I am saying I don’t think it was worse because he was old than it would have been if he was young. I don’t think I would feel worse if an elderly family member was murdered than I would if a young family member was, personally if I was ever presented with the awful choice between an 80-year-old relative and a 20-year-old relative being killed I would go for the elderly one as I’d feel
they had fewer years left, but clearly others on here see the elderly as more vulnerable and so would prefer a younger person had been killed. I guess there is no right or wrong because murder is always wrong and it is completely inexcusable for anybody to be murdered regardless of age, I was just expressing that personally I don’t think an old person’s life is worth more because they’re vulnerable and was presenting the argument that you could look at it based on years left instead of vulnerability and get a different answer.

I can’t believe some posters are justifying the weak sentences given to the offenders because the victim was old and therefore didn’t have long to live anyway.

I agree - if there was a situation where it was me or one of my boys I'd take it without question - they should have 70 years left whereas I've done nearly 50.
However this gent's age isn't important - he was 80yo, out walking the dog and his family expected him home. If he'd been a burglar and been attacked - like the traveller who got stabbed with a screwdriver and died, or a drug dealer and something went wrong between gangs well thats the risk you take, but honest citizens minding their own business is very different.

Indeed. Even aside from the punishment aspect, it's starkly manifest that these children have never had the requisite basic parenting that most of us had - not that any of our parents were/are perfect - and are thus woefully lacking in the rudimentary essentials of whay they need ro function in society; so this clearly needs to be strictly addressed at a state level before they can be allowed to roam free for a considerable amount of time.

Just because we consider people to be capable of functioning as adults at the age of 18, that does very much depend on the expectation that proper parenting and learning will have taken place up to that age.

just like if you buy a plot of land and get a load of bricks and other building materials dropped off from a lorry, you can't go away with nobody there for several years and just expect to come back to a fully-completed home that's all ready to move into.

I agree - thats madness - if anything its worse as he may not have been able to defend himself as well as a youngster.

Exactly. And also, I can’t seem to get the image out of my head of what I read, that he was slapped with a shoe on his knees. It’s abhorrent, and then to find him in the park wailing and crying out in pain. Just couldn’t imagine that happening to my family member, I wouldn’t know how to cope or get over that.

They may be “children” but they’re not young children, and they are old enough to know better. I can’t imagine you can truly rehabilitate someone like this can you?

Pathetic. Parents should be sentenced too!

Whilst I agree with the potential (non-)parenting issues here - I struggle to believe that anyone can think its OK to attack a vulnerable person, kill them as if its a normal day like going to the shops - maybe I'm naive about how some people live. If so then I'm glad to be like that and that we live in the sticks where its all a bit more peaceful. If that happened here the police wouldn't know what to do first - probably check the closest cars for bald tyres

If they think thats a way to behave then at that age I think they're past learning how to behave. Don't they say if you haven't got well behaved kids by the time they're 7 then it's too late? And I'm talking and please and thank yous and using coasters on an oak table lol without being prompted - and of course knowing you don't go around beating people up and killing them.

But the fact that the judge declared that the attack wasn’t racially motivated is causing serious concern. Many, many people think that it was because of the language used by the defendants. If it the judge had decided that there was a racial element to the attack, the sentences would most likely have been longer.

The judge isn't saying that the language used wasn't racist. The fact that the boy used a sadly common racial slur during the attack unfortunately isn't proof alone that the attack was racially motivated.

We know the motivation behind the attack - the victim was targeted as he was involved in previous altercations with the attackers. To say that the motive for the attack was racial would be to say that it would not have happened if the victim was of a different race, which is almost certainly untrue.

We have a high bar for depravation of liberty in this country and in this particular case it seems that there simply wasn't enough evidence to reach the threshold for proof of race being an aggravating factor.

For what it's worth, I believe it was mentioned in court that neither child was found to hold generally racist views.

I think there is an egg shell skull rule so you take the victim as you find them. Possibly a younger more resilient person would of survived for example and it’d be gbh or something.

Yeah, I feel like there is something in this.
children will reflect their environments and upbringing I.e. parenting, siblings, wider family network, friendship groups, school, social media. Dread to think what their parents and families are like.