A Belgian cyclist who went viral after he was filmed kneeing a little girl and knocking her to the ground as he rode past her has won his court case against her father for posting the footage online.
A court will determine in April next year how much compensation he is entitled to after he successfully argued he was defamed. He previously demanded €4,500 – roughly the price of his bike.
The footage was filmed by five-year-old Neia’s dad, Patrick Mpasa, during their family walk in a nature reserve in Baraque Michel, Liege Province on Christmas Day 2020.
The cyclist was originally taken to court in Verviers for kneeing the child, only to be given a suspended sentence on the grounds that he had been criticised enough on social media. He was ordered to pay the girl’s family a pitiful €1 in compensation.
The video shows him knocking into the youngster, causing her to topple over.
But the 62-year-old cyclist – reportedly a father and grandfather of seven grandchildren, who has not been named publicly – sued Mpasa for defamation.
In the video, the five-year-old girl is seen walking by her mother’s side on the snow-covered path as the cyclist approaches them from behind.
Just as he rides alongside the girl, he extends his knee out, hitting the little girl and knocking her to the ground before continuing on his way unbothered.
The family believed it was not an accident, as the man did not stop to check if the girl was okay and carried on cycling down the path.
However, the court decided the cyclist was free to go because he had incurred enough criticism on social media over the incident.
But the story did not end there. Almost a year after the incident, the cyclist went back to court to sue the girl’s father for defamation.
