Two men are facing prison time after being found guilty of conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm to an NHS worker. The victim was left with serious injuries after being struck by a car that mounted the pavement on his way home from work near Southmead Hospital.
Katungua Tjitendero, 25, was hit near the hospital by a Honda on the afternoon of July 22, 2020. As he lay injured on the ground, he heard two men fleeing the scene. Bristol Crown Court was told Mr Tjitendero heard one of them men say the “n-word” as they fled the scene.
Phillip Adams, 26, and Patrick James, 22, who were in the car that hit Mr Tjitendero, were convicted by a jury of conspiracy to inflict grievous bodily harm. The court heard that Mr Tjitendero suffered a fractured fibula, fractured nose, and lacerations to his head and both shins, which required surgery.
In a video interview recorded by police the day after the incident, a visibly injured Mr Tjitendero described how his head hit the windscreen of the blue Honda Accord car. Mr Tjitendero, a Bristol-based musician said he had been watching music videos on his phone and wearing headphones when he was suddenly “hit by a car”.
During the police interview, Mr Tjitendero told officers: “At first, I just thought it was some sort of crash. Then when they got out and said what they said… It is just two white kids and then they do that and say the n-word and run off. I was just like wow.
“I definitely heard the n-word. I can’t really remember what they looked like, I just remember two white males. They just got out of the car. As soon as they hit me, they left the car and ran off.”
Eyewitness Alison Adams recounted the harrowing moment when she saw the car take a “sharp turn to the right and aim straight into where the houses were”. She described how two men fled from the car were both hooded, with one wearing a “Scream” mask and the other concealing his face with a scarf.
“By that time, I realised someone had been hit by the car going into the wall,” she added. Prosecutor Anjali Gohil explained that James and Adams were in the Honda cruising around Southmead “looking” for Mr Tjitendero.
An examination of the car revealed Adams’s DNA on the inflated driver’s airbag and James’s DNA on the front passenger window, according to Miss Gohil. Two other men, Jordan McCarthy, 22, and Daniel Whereatt, 51, who were also accused of being in a nearby getaway car, were cleared of all charges of conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm.
James faced further conviction for causing grievous bodily harm with intent in an incident occurring 10 days prior in Avonmouth. In this earlier event, a Ford C-Max veered onto the pavement, colliding with cyclist Julian Ford.
Mr Ford sustained serious injuries including a rib fracture, a haemothorax, lung damage, and internal bleeding. This offence came to light following James’s arrest for the attack on Mr Tjitendero. A video was found on his mobile phone showing a car mounting the pavement and hitting a cyclist.
James, from Lawrence Weston, Bristol, and Adams, from Southmead, Bristol, who was not present for the trial, are set to be sentenced on Monday, September 30.