The daughter of a Leicestershire pensioner who was killed by a "feral" youth has expressed that plans to jail parents of child criminals have come too late for her family, but she still sees it as a "small victory." Susan Kohli, the daughter of Bhim Kohli, has warned that out-of-control youngsters currently act as if they are "untouchable," revealing that the parents of one teen involved in her father's death even asked for a lenient sentence so they could go on holiday.
Mr Kohli, who was 80, was kicked and punched by a 15-year-old boy as he walked his dog Rocky in Franklin Park, Braunstone Town, in September 2024, while a 13-year-old girl filmed part of the attack while laughing. He died in hospital the following day.
New plans published by the Ministry of Justice reveal that parenting orders have collapsed from more than 1,000 a decade ago to just 33 in 2022/23. The Justice Secretary David Lammy has unveiled a crackdown on this, threatening parents with massive fines or prison time if they let their children run riot. Miss Kohli called the move a "bittersweet" victory.
She said: "I'm really happy that they've taken the approach to now hold parents accountable. But the stats show that we need to ensure that they follow through on this white paper now, because if we look at the stats from 2009 to 2010, they had thousands that they held accountable — but then in 2022 and 2023, there was only 33."
She added that the reforms needed to go further, with police, social services and government all playing their part. She said: "It is a small victory, it's come too late. But they had these things in place, and they became non-existent. The children do what they do because they know they're untouchable. You do something wrong - you're not untouchable."
The wide-ranging Government document, Cutting Youth Crime. Changing Young Lives, also includes plans to cut the number of children in custody by 20 per cent, raise the minimum youth custodial sentence to 12 months, and introduce new Youth Intervention Courts by spring 2027.
Ministers confirmed they will also review whether the age of criminal responsibility, currently set at just 10 years old, remains appropriate. However, the changes are not yet law, with no firm timetable set for the legislation needed to bring them into force.
Miss Kohli said the Government also needed to support parents who were genuinely struggling to control their children. She said: "The government needs to be accountable as well, to be able to support parents when they are seeking help to control their feral little brats. Something needs to stop because we have the incidents two weeks before my dad's death with some other children, but once again the police didn't take action."
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Mid Leicestershire MP Peter Bedford, who has campaigned alongside Miss Kohli since her father's killing, welcomed the plans but insisted the Government still has more to do. He said: "I am pleased that the Government has listened to Susan and myself, but there is still more to do. Susan and I remain determined to push for stronger parental responsibility throughout our judicial system - achieving greater parental accountability cannot change what happened to Mr Kohli, but thanks to the tireless efforts of his daughter, this tragedy will change how the judicial system responds to youth offending."
Miss Kohli's campaign comes amid a fresh police probe, after Leicestershire Police referred itself to the policing watchdog following an investigation which exposed a series of failings surrounding her father's death - including officers failing to flag him as a repeat victim and logging racial incidents as harassment rather than hate crimes.
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