SuppliedA 15-year-old boy accused of racially abusing a pensioner before slapping him in the face with his shoe and causing him fatal injuries has “difficulty keeping track” of his lies, a murder trial has heard.
Bhim Kohli, 80, sustained a spinal injury and fractured ribs in Franklin Park, Braunstone Town, near Leicester, on 1 September last year.
Jurors at Leicester Crown Court were told the teenager lied in the account he gave to police and had to “change his story” because he did not know that a 13-year-old girl had filmed parts of the alleged attack.
The boy is on trial having denied Mr Kohli’s murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter, while the girl denies manslaughter.
‘Making things up’
Neither defendant can be named because of their ages.
The boy was cross-examined in the witness box by prosecution KC Harpreet Sandhu on Thursday and looked towards the public gallery, where his mother was sitting, several times while he gave evidence.
He previously told the jury there was a “tussle” over his slider, which had “slipped off”, causing Mr Kohli to fall to his knees before the boy slapped him out of “instinct”.
Mr Sandhu told the defendant the story was “not true” because in a video clip of the slapping assault found on the girl’s My Eyes Only folder on Snapchat, the boy was not wearing any sliders.
The prosecutor said to the boy: “Both of your sliders had come off your feet before you slapped Mr Kohli to the face.
“They must have done because we can’t see you wearing any sliders, can we?
“Did you take your sliders off to make it easier to run towards Mr Kohli? Did you run to him so you could be violent to him?”
Jurors heard that, in a statement given to the prosecution a month before his trial began, the boy said he “lunged for the slider and Mr Kohli hit the defendant over the head with it”.
In court, the boy admitted he lied about Mr Kohli hitting him.
Mr Sandhu said: “In that document you tell us that that Mr Kohli hit you over the head with the slider and that’s different to what you told the jury yesterday afternoon.
“It is different because you are making things up, aren’t you? When you make things up it is difficult to remember the lies you have told… you are having difficulty keeping track of your lies.”
The jury heard that the boy told police that Mr Kohli hit him and had “clenched fists” when he turned to the defendant, which he told the court was a lie.
Mr Sandhu said: “You told a lie to make him out to be aggressive.”
The prosecutor asked the boy: “When you gave this version in your prepared statement you did not know, did you, that the police had three clips from [the girl’s] phone?
“It was played to you for the first time… during the interviews, and when you prepared your statement you did not know that the clip existed, did you?”
The boy replied: “No.”
Mr Sandhu said: “You had to change your story, didn’t you? You have made up a new story to fit with what we can see in the clips from [the girl’s] phone. If you wanted to co-operate with the police, why did you lie to them?”
The boy replied: “I’m not sure.”
He also denied the 13-year-old girl, who was aged 12 at the time, “encouraged him to be violent” towards Mr Kohli.
The trial continues.
