Two thugs from Bristol who filmed themselves hitting a cyclist and driving away laughing have been found convicted. The disturbing video shows the pair intentionally ram into the back of a cyclist, while laughing.
The shocking moment the car mounted the pavement and mowed down a cyclist has been shared. It was found that only days after the ‘sickening’ attack, the pair also hit an NHS worker.
Patrick James, 22, was in the car as it mounted the kerb and rammed into cyclist Julian Ford. Julian suffered multiple injuries, including smashed ribs and internal bleeding.
The horrific video was found on James’ phone as detectives investigated him and Phillip Adams, 26, for a separate hit-and-run attack ten days later.
In the second attack NHS worker Katungua Tjitendero was walking near Southmead Hospital before he was hit by a blue Honda Accord. James and Adams fled the scene, with one shouting a racial slur at Mr Tjitendero, who was pinned against a wall by the car.
He suffered “devastating” injuries, including a broken nose, a fractured right leg, facial wounds and cuts to both his legs.
At Bristol Crown Court on Friday, September 29, James and Adams were found guilty of conspiracy to cause intentional grievous bodily harm for the attack on Mr Tjitendero. James was also found guilty of intentional GBH following the assault on Mr Ford.
Detective Superintendent Mike Buck, of Avon and Somerset Police, branded the attacks “absolutely sickening”. He said: “It was later in the investigation that we identified this attack on Julian Ford, only ten days beforehand, and realised the significance, that this wasn’t an isolated incident. These were two linked attacks.
“Patrick James was filming the attack and you hear him on the video, and the driver, laughing both before and afterwards as they drive off. Absolutely sickening.”
CCTV footage showed Mr Tjitendero heading towards a bus stop at around 4.30pm on July 22, 2020, after finishing a shift at Southmead Hospital. Detective Superintendent Buck said the blue Honda car appeared “from nowhere” and hit Mr Tjitendero from the back.
He said: “A car attacked him from behind. He had no chance and was left with devastating injuries.”
Pictures taken of the aftermath of the shocking incident showed the car resting against a wall – with a smashed windscreen on the driver’s side.
Mr Tjitendero was rushed to the hospital – where both he and his mother Hivaka work – for emergency treatment. The court heard that on July 16, James had paid £300 for the blue Honda Accord involved in the collision.
CCTV from petrol stations around the area showed James using the car over the following days. Adams’s DNA was found inside the car, which he had told officers he had been in at times.
When James’ mobile phone was seized by police, it revealed the footage of Mr Ford being knocked off his bike. Detective say the hit-and-run happened on July 12, 2020 in Broadlands Drive, Lawrence Weston, Bristol, ten days before the attack on Mr Tjitendero.
James was convicted of intentionally causing GBH to Mr Ford. Adams failed to appear in court and was tried and found guilty of the separate charges relating to Mr Tjitendero in his absence.
Both men are due to be sentenced later today, Monday, September 30.
Two other men, Jordan McCarthy, 22, and Daniel Whereatt, 51, denied a charge of conspiracy to cause GBH to Mr Tjitendero and were acquitted by the jury.