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.
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.
Now, the 62-year-old cyclist who has not been named is taking Mpasa to court to sue him for defamation, local media outlet HBVL said yesterday.
The five-year-old girl is knocked to the ground by the cyclist as she walks in a park in Baraque Michel, Belgium, on Christmas Day
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 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, but the court decided the cyclist was free to go because he had incurred enough criticism on social media.
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.
Jacques Englebert, Mpasa's lawyer, said in response to the defamation suit: '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.'
The two parties are expected to meet for the first time on November 18, and the trial is expected to take place in
