Life for trio of yobs who chased and kicked dad to death for his kebab
THREE teenage killers who kicked a defenceless father-of-two to death for his kebab were handed life sentences yesterday.
Nachhatar Singh Bola, 36, was repeatedly kicked and stamped on when he fell as he was being chased.
Dillon Cherrie, Dean Logan and Stewart Patterson had been drinking and taking Valium last July 2 before launching the random attack on Mr Bola as he made his way home with the takeaway meal.
One of the killers later texted that he thought it was “funny” he had attacked his victim to get his kebab.
Mr Bola, from India, who had been visiting relatives in Scotland, never regained consciousness and died in hospital a month
later from multiple organ failure and pneumonia. Visa problems prevented his wife from travelling from India to be with him.
Cherrie and Logan, both 16, and Patterson, now 20, who all had previous assault convictions, admitted the murder after a tip-off led police to Cherrie’s home.
The attack happened the day after Patterson had been released on bail after appearing in court on a weapons charge.
Forensic examinations later showed that the trio’s clothes were soaked with Mr Bola’s blood, and footprints on his jumper matched training shoes worn by Cherrie and Patterson.
At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, Lady Dorrian sentenced all three to detention without limit of time. Cherrie and Logan, who was just 15 at the time of the murder, were ordered to spend at least nine years behind bars, while Patterson was given a minimum 10-and-a-half years.
Cherrie was given an additional two months, and Patterson an extra four and a half months, because they were on bail at the time of the killing. Lady Dorrian told them: “The three of you were engaged in a vicious, sustained, mindless and unprovoked attack on a passing stranger.
“The violence was considerable and resulted in the death of Mr Bola and tragic consequences for his family. Such behaviour is frankly incomprehensible.”
The court heard how the three began drinking and taking tablets on the afternoon of the attack.
Later that evening, they went back to Cherrie’s home in Renfrew, where a fight broke out and spilled on to the street.
Around the same time, Mr Bola, from the Punjab, was making his way home with the takeaway meal when he was chased for no reason and fell to the ground.
The thugs left him unconscious in a pool of blood.
The court heard Mr Bola’s wife, Baljinder Kaur, 36, and the couple’s daughter Manreet, four, and son Saranpreet, eight, were “devastated” by their loss.
Speaking through an interpreter, the tearful widow said: “At least those boys know and their parents know those boys will return home after they’ve finished off their sentences. My kids will never see their father again and their dad will never come home again.” Mrs Kaur, who spoke on the phone to her husband during his visit to Britain, added: “On the last call, he said he would be home shortly because the kids were missing him and he was missing everybody as well.”
But instead came the tragic news, delivered by a friend.
“When she phoned, I was home alone,” said Mrs Kaur. “There was nobody else there. I felt like hitting my head off the wall.”
