A cyclist who sparked outrage in Belgium last year after he went viral for kneeing a young girl to the ground during her family’s Christmas Day walk is now suing her dad for sharing the video online.
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 December 25, 2020.
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 seemingly extends his knee out, hitting the little girl and knocking her to the ground before continuing on his way unbothered.
The cyclist was taken to court in Verviers, only to be given a suspended sentence on the grounds that he had been criticised enough on social media and was ordered to pay the girl’s family a symbolic and pitiful €1 in compensation.
And the best part:
Now, almost a year after the incident, the cyclist is heading back to court to sue the girl’s father for defamation on the grounds that the backlash the video received resulted in him feeling so threatened by the public he was scared to leave his own house.
Act like an asshole, get treated like one. And for the legal action? Dismissed with costs, if there’s any justice left in the world.
Cyclists act like they own the fucking road, anyway.