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The president of an area cycling club was filmed smashing his knee into the back of a young girl in Belgium.
The incident filmed by the girl’s dad led to a lengthy legal battle after the daddy shared the footage online.
It showed how the cyclist approached the five-year-old girl Neia from behind on a path during a family walk in Baraque Michel nature reserve on Christmas Day, 2020.
Neia and her mum were walking along the trail when a cyclist, named only as Jacques D, appeared behind the pair.
He may be heard sounding the horn-like bike bell as he quickly approaches them.
While the cyclist rides along the little girl, he appears to increase out his knee, which hits Neia within the back, sending her flying to the snowy ground.
Her dad, Patrick Mpasa, may be heard yelling after him as he cycles on, seemingly unbothered by the encounter.
Mr Mpasa said he managed to make the person stop, but he ‘showed no remorse and didn’t apologise,’ he claimed.
While the dad said he didn’t ‘need a witch hunt,’ he later posted the footage on social media, which sparked a protracted legal row.
In a single court hearing in February 2021, Jacques D said the incident happened because he was attempting to keep his balance, Every day Mail reports.
He said: ‘Once I was riding near the girl, I felt my rear wheel sliding. To avoid a fall, I balanced myself with a movement of my knee. I felt that I might need hit the girl, but didn’t immediately realise she had been knocked over.’
Ultimately, Jacques D received a suspended sentence because the judge argued he had no intention of harming the girl, the incident was minor and he had faced heavy criticism online.
He was ordered to pay a symbolic sum of €1 (£0.87) in compensation.
The problem returned to the courts when Jacques D sued Mr Mpasa for defamation over the video clip, arguing that he was identifiable from the video.
The dad was first ordered to pay the cyclist nearly £4,000 in compensation in April 2023.
However the court of Liege overturned the choice yesterday, and ordered the cyclist to pay around £1,700 in court costs as an alternative.
Mr Mpasa’s lawyer, Jacques Englebert, told the Every day Mail: ‘In essence, the court said that posting the video was a freedom of expression and it was not a crime, so the unique ruling was overturned.
‘The court said that by uploading the clip, the daddy had contributed to the general public debate on cyclists and pedestrians, and it was not a difficulty.’
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