A teenager has admitted killing a motorcyclist by putting a hire bicycle in his path.

The boy, 16, put the yellow bike in front of Michael Rice on a Bristol road on 5 April this year.

Mr Rice was not wearing a helmet and was on a stolen bike.

Despite braking, he went over the handlebars at over 50mph, hit the back of a parked van and died instantly from neck and chest injuries.

The teenager, who can’t be named because he is too young, had denied murder and manslaughter charges at Bristol Crown Court.

But on Thursday, as the prosecution finished their case, he entered a guilty plea to manslaughter and accepted he unlawfully killed Mr Rice.

The plea was accepted and the jury was discharged from considering the murder charge.

Prosecutors had told the court the bike Mr Rice was riding had been stolen that day and that he was riding around Bristol’s Hartcliffe area in a “provocative way”.

“The prosecution case is that the boy decided to use the YoBike to stop Michael Rice and knock him off the motorbike,” Adam Vaitilingam QC told the jury.

CCTV recorded the teenager dragging the bicycle into Fulford Road as Mr Rice sped towards him.

Crash experts estimated he was accelerating and going between 52 and 55mph at the time he hit the bicycle.

It is believed he was doing a wheelie at the time of the collision.

“It is undoubtedly a feature of this case that Michael Rice was driving that motorbike too fast, without a helmet, and with little apparent concern for his own safety or those in front of him,” Mr Vaitilingam said.

“He certainly contributed to the tragedy that unfolded. But that in itself is not a defence for the boy.”

The teenager will be sentenced on Friday.

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