Cyclist filmed hitting girl, 5, successfully sues her dad for sharing video
An infamous cyclist who kneed a five-year-old girl in the face while riding his bike has successfully sued the girls’ father for sharing footage of the incident online.
Shocking footage captured on Christmas Day in 2020 shows the unnamed biker sticking his knee out and knocking the young girl into a snowy path in Baraque Michel, Belgium.
Patrick Mpasa, the girls’ father, caught the incident on camera while walking with his family and later uploaded it online, claiming the man ‘showed no remorse and did not apologise’.
‘What’s more, he accused me of being aggressive. He claimed that he had not seen that Neïa [his daughter] had fallen, that he would otherwise have stopped… I have the impression that he thinks it is normal,’ he added.
Upon sharing the clip, Patrick insisted he didn’t want a ‘witch hunt’ but rather just sought an apology from the cyclist who had clipped his daughter.
He later took the cyclist to court where he was handed a suspended sentence, with the court ruling that he had suffered enough after being lambasted on social media and ordered him to pay Patrick €1 compensation.
But a year later, the cyclist returned to court to sue the girl’s father for defamation, claiming the backlash to the viral video had been so strong that he now feared leaving his home.
Now after two years of legal wrangling, the cyclist has finally won the lawsuit.
Initially, he asked to be paid €4,500 (£3,911) in compensation – the same price as the bike he claims he can no longer use.
But according to The Sun, the exact amount of compensation the man will receive will be determined in April 2024.
At the start of the lawsuit, Patrick’s lawyer cited freedom of expression and saidhis client had done nothing wrong.
Jacques Engelbert said: ‘We have the right to express ourselves. We have the right to post or have posted a video on the internet.
‘In this case, we must check whether we have exceeded the limits of this freedom of expression.’
‘This judgement … has found that the father of the young girl, by publishing the video, made a mistake,’ said Philippe Culot, the cyclist’s lawyer.
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