One year ago this evening, 80-year-old
Bim Kohley was fatally attacked in a
park just meters from his home in
Leicester.
Bim was racially abused and attacked by
a 14-year-old boy while a 12year-old
girl filmed the assault. Both were
convicted of manslaughter. Bim was
attacked two weeks after he intervened
in an attack on another man by two
teenage boys. Now, they weren't involved
in Bim's death, but his family strongly
believes that if police had taken action
against them immediately to clamp down
on antisocial behavior, Bim may not have
been killed. I've been speaking to Bim's
daughter, Susan, in the park where he
was attacked while walking his dog
on that day. They just got through this
tree section out the other end just to
where that bench is in the far right
there. That's where the boy had struck
dad the first time.
Dad then got to his feet
coming home because he'd just been
assaulted
and
he didn't even reach the gate to come
home. The boy then attacked my dad again
here. And this is where my ne some of
the neighbors and the community had
found my dad.
And then my nephew came out.
>> Just here again.
>> Just literally here.
>> Just feet from your front door.
>> Yeah.
>> Your father had been targeted
>> before the the attack that killed him
>> and that had been reported. So the first
incident was in July when it was my dad.
They were abusive and um racial comments
as well as spitting at my dad. Uh I had
reported that
>> um the police had came and done some
doorto-door and it was identified that
there was various
um occasions
>> that there was antisocial behavior on
our area. Um after that there was one in
August
uh which
>> this is where you and your dad
intervened on the on behalf of somebody
else.
>> That is correct. Yeah. myself and my dad
intervened because I didn't like the way
it was going. I actually started
recording it
>> um from my room. Let's let's have a sit
down because I want to talk to you about
what you feel has been the police
response in particular Leicester
police's response to antisocial behavior
in this area because as you said after
your dad's death
you went to them and asked for
information about what they had been
doing to address neighborhood concerns
about antisocial
behavior. So these two individuals in
the August event were not connected to
my dad's um death.
>> But if you look at the fact that they
didn't do anything
prior to my dad's death, then why is it
that they're not taking these things
seriously?
Are they just waiting for something to
happen? Because that's literally what it
looks and feels like. They waited for
someone to lose their life before they
took any stance. If they had arrested
these two boys prior to that incident on
the 1st of September,
there is a possibility my dad could
still be here.
>> You feel it would have been a deterrent,
a message to kids in this community.
>> Yes. So to these two boys that were
involved in the incident in August were
not related to my father's um death.
>> But it was a chance for police to lay
down a marker, send a message, Susan, as
well as police responsibility in
tackling antisocial behavior and
accountability for how they deal with
it.
Something else that you really want to
talk about is sentencing guidelines for
children. Always a controversial topic.
Um the 15year-old boy, 14 at the time of
attacking your father. He was sentenced
to seven years in custody and the
13year-old girl 12 at the time of the
attack was given a three-year youth
rehabilitation order and a sixmonth
curfew. There was an appeal process for
those sentences being seen by many
including yourself as unduly lenient.
That was not upheld.
And you're not calling for whole life
orders for children, but you do believe
that there should be tougher sentencing
for children who take a life.
>> We need the sentencing guidelines to be
looked at. Whether it's a child or an
adult,
they know what they are doing at that
age.
Why is it because they are a child
that they get half the sentence of an
adult? is going to be out in three and a
half years or even less. How is that
justice for taking somebody's life?
That's not justice at all.
They've given us a life sentence
and they've got less. Now, if you're
going to serve a sentence of seven
years,
then that should be a full sentence of
seven years. Can I ask you about
parental responsibility because you know
during that six week trial you sat in
the same courtroom as the parents of the
two children who killed your father
and again this is an issue that comes up
when we talk about children committing
crimes antisocial behavior the question
where are the parents
what's your view on parental
responsibility in these kind of cases
>> there should be some responsibility and
accountability from the parent.
We were there day in daily. Now the
boy's mother was there daily. But once
again, no remorse,
no consideration that your son has just
taken a life of somebody.
>> It's relatively new, but in the United
States, the law is increasingly holding
parents accountable for their children's
criminal actions.
>> Yes. some of them finding themselves in
court.
Do you think that's a place we could
ever get to here in the UK? And do you
think it would be an effective
deterrent? As I said, so new in the
United States, we don't know whether it
will be a deterrent. I'd just be
interested to know your thoughts on
that.
>> I really think we need to bring that in
cuz if we look at that, the parents will
then sit up and think, right, you know
what, we need to know what our child is
doing. We need to know how they are
behaving in school. We need to
understand if they're being a bully or
not because until they do that, things
are not going to change. Well, Susan, I
appreciate you
coming back to this park to talk to us
about
everything that's happened since your
father's death. You know, we're 12
months on and you've done so much in
terms of, you know, there's been a
trial, sentencing, an appeal, but it's
important to to talk about your dad a
year on about BIM. You know, this park
was part of his everyday life, him and
his dog, Rocky. How are you remembering
him a year on? I know you got a big
smile on your face as soon as I
mentioned his name.
He oh three times a day, four times a
day he would come into this park and he
was well known by the community
even just stopping and talking to him
>> and the memories that we've got of dad
and it there's loads loads of memories.
What do you think he would make of you
becoming this voice, this campaigner for
change in his name?
>> The day of the court of appeal when we
came out after the sentencing
the clouds
was very dark
>> and whilst I was standing outside
there was some thundering. I was very
lucky that he actually waited until I
got back into my car before the skies
opened and it chucked it down with rain.
And I just feel that as a sign thinking,
yeah, okay, he's not happy. And I'm
hoping that he's looking down thinking
right, yeah, you go girl. little sign
for you to carry on to channel some of
that thunder and
>> yeah, thunder and that fight to continue
>> to get the right outcome
for the future because we need to stop
this.
>> Well, a huge thank you to Susan for
speaking uh to me and the family holding
a candle lit vigil for members of the
community to remember BIM tomorrow
evening. We wish them well with that. We
have got in touch with Leicester police
um who have told us that due to prior
contact with BIM, the force referred
itself to the independent office for
police conduct. The resulting
investigation finding that proportionate
and reasonable lines of inquiry were
followed and no misconduct or missed
opportunities which could have prevented
BIM's death were identified. Chief
Superintendent Jonathan Starbucks said
this. We know that antisocial behavior
has a huge impact on people's lives.
Preventing and addressing incidents and
community concerns is of the utmost
importance to our force in order to
ensure the safety of our residents. This
is something we continue to work on,
address, and to make ongoing
improvements wherever we can. Through
our own local investigation following
direction by the IOPC, we also
identified organizational learning in
relation to improving our system of
logging and tagging antisocial behavior
incidents.
Meanwhile, an IOPC spokesperson said,
"We agreed with Leicester Police's
finding that police officers did
proactively investigate matters reported
to them and there was nothing to
indicate any officers or police staff
committed a criminal offense or behaved
in a manner justifying disciplinary
proceedings.