The identity of the cyclist filmed knocking over a five-year-old girl on a snowy path has been revealed as Jacques Davenne, the president of a local cycling club.
The incident took place on Christmas Day in 2020 in the Baraque Michel nature reserve in the province of Liège, and sparked widespread debate after the footage was shared on Facebook.
Davenne has now spoken publicly about the incident, telling the Daily Mail that “I did what any good cyclist does and rang my bell several times, but they obviously didn’t hear me, so I cycled past, but as I did so I slipped and lost my balance slightly.
‘That’s when I knocked the little girl, I had put my leg out to balance myself, I didn’t realise I had hit her, and she had fallen over as I had cycled past. Then the father chased after me and berated me.
“I said it was an accident and then carried on. It was only later, when I saw the video on social media, that I realised he had filmed me.
The video shows the cyclist approaching the girl, Neïa, from behind, then his left knee appears to make contact with her as he rides past on a snow-covered path, causing her to fall.
Following a public appeal, the cyclist handed himself into police and spent a night in custody. He was subsequently charged with intentional assault and battery against a minor, which could carry the possibility of a one-year prison sentence.
In March 2021, a court in Verviers ordered the cyclist to pay symbolic damages of €1 to the child’s family. He also received a suspended sentence, as the judge concluded that he had been cycling too fast and had not left enough space to pass safely.
Following the conviction, Davenne launched a defamation case against the girl’s father, Patrick Mpasa, arguing that the video’s publication online had damaged his reputation and left the cyclist feeling unsafe when going outside.
Mr Mpasa maintained that he had shared the footage not to seek revenge but to raise awareness, saying he did not “want a witch hunt, just him to apologise”.
In September 2023, a court ruled in favour of the cyclist and ordered Mr Mpasa to pay €4,500 (£3,911) in compensation for the value of the bike Davenne claimed he could no longer use.
However, that ruling was overturned on Thursday by a court in Liège.
Davenne has said that he is still unhappy with the outcome, saying, “I still feel I did nothing wrong.”
“It wasn’t fair, and social media can be a huge problem. He had no right to do that.
“My friends recognised me and kept asking about what happened, and I told them it was an accident, just one of those things. But it quickly went out of control, even after I spoke with the father, as a friend of mine knew his wife. I suggested we drop it and forget about it, as no harm was done.
“But then the police were involved, and I was even kept in custody when the investigation started. It seemed to get out of hand very quickly for something that was very small. I still don’t see how the decision was overturned, as far as I can see, my image shouldn’t have been posted on the internet.
“The court said it was freedom of expression and contributed to the debate between cyclists and pedestrians, that may be the case, but it should not have been posted online. I just don’t understand how they came to a totally different verdict. That’s why I am going to speak to my lawyer to see what he says.”
> Cyclist filmed knocking over five-year-old wins defamation case against child’s father
He also added that the controversy around the video has taken a toll on him. He said: “This has all been very difficult for me. My cycling friends understand it was an accident, but I’ve been made to look very bad because of the video.
“Thankfully, I’ve never met the man again, even though I’ve been cycling along there since, but psychologically it has affected me, although as I said, it will not stop me cycling.
“Because I can assure you that one thing – I am still cycling and I intend to carry on cycling, it’s part of life and this won’t put me off at all, I’ve been riding for years, I’m passionate about it.”
45 thoughts on “Cyclist who knocked over five-year-old girl says “I did nothing wrong” and that he was “psychologically affected” by viral video”
Without rehashing the debate around the original incident, Davenne seeking “compensation for the value of the bike [he] claimed he could no longer use” would seem to be very much at odds with his later claim that “I’ve been cycling along there since, but psychologically it has affected me, although as I said, it will not stop me cycling. Because I can assure you that one thing – I am still cycling and I intend to carry on cycling, it’s part of life and this won’t put me off at all”.
He was awarded the compensation in 2023, three years after the incident, so I suppose it’s possible that at that time he had given up cycling but has now resumed.
I look at this photo and wonder what kind of person allows their 5 year old to block the middle of the trail while someone else is approaching and clearly needs to pass. If that was my kid I would have moved them next to me for the safety of my child and the rider. I haven’t seen the video so I don’t know if this one frame is taken out of context.
Surely this is a wind up. The kid was 5 and out having a nice time on a shared use path with their family. Even if the cyclist had stopped and been waiting for a while to get past, you can’t just knock a kid over because they are in your way.
If you watched the video you would see that it was just a twat on a bike who didn’t want to wait for anyone. A coward who wouldn’t have kneed a grown man in the back…
The fact he is trying to play the victim and seemingly has been from day one speaks volumes about him. I haven’t at any point seen him come out and say “I was a knob and I apologise unreservedly to the little girl”.
To be fair, that would have required a certain amount of contortion.
If you look carefully he does put his knee out at the moment he would lose his balance. He was cycling on ice and was cycling on the edge of the track. He was not cycling fast either. The idea that it was an accident is perfectly plausible.
Whether it was deliberate or not may be argued (I personally think it was, looking again at the video he actually looks down directly at the little girl before he sticks his knee out) but in any case he was definitely going much too fast for an approach to a family with small children on an icy shared path. If he’d backed off when he saw them, instead of sounding his horn and maintaining his speed, there would have been no incident to argue about.
“I didn’t realise I had hit her”
That seems very improbable. He doesn’t brush the girl with his knee; it’s a significant bump.
It was a dumb manoeuvre whatever it was. I’m sure he’s been close passed by bad drivers plenty of times so he knows how dangerous and stressful this kind of thing feels.
I am by no means saying the cyclist is blameless – he’s obviously a complete doorknob. I’m saying the parent was careless too.
I have to take issue with that, as you say you haven’t seen the video and this still picture certainly doesn’t show the whole story. The mother and child were walking along the track perfectly happily, the cyclist appears in the background going at speed, he sounds his horn and the mother turns to look to see what’s coming and in one second from sounding the horn he’s up with them and kneeing the little girl out of the way. The mother didn’t see him coming and blithely let the child carry on playing, she doesn’t get a chance to pull the child out of the cyclist’s path as he was going much too fast and gave his warning much too late. It’s 100% his fault, whether or not the actual assault was deliberate.
The parents didn’t get hit, the girl did. She deserved an apology, but he didn’t, did he, he just sailed past.
The cyclist doesn’t have right of way that supercedes that of other path users on a dual use path, the girl and her parents have every right to be where they are.
Regardless of the situation and other rights and wrongs he has a duty to try to not knock over a small child. He made absolutely no effort whatsoever.
Had I been him, I’d have stopped walked around the girl and moved on. Easy, and a few seconds would have been all it took. 2
To be honest this is quite a disturbing stance to take.
It’s a public path where parents with children are perfectly entitled to wander around and enjoy the surroundings in peace. A 5 year old out enjoying the snow in such a place is completely normal, and imputing some kind of lack of care from the parent in not standing ready to immediately sweep them out of the way should a cyclist come round the corner is outrageous.
In any case, do at least make the effort to watch the video before making such comments, it is easy to find and you will immediately see that there was only a matter of seconds after the cyclist came round the corner before he reached the child.
The fact is, in such a path and in such conditions he should have been going slower round the corner, and should have slowed more as soon as he saw the people on the path, and been prepared to stop if necessary – and then he wouldn’t have been having to worry about losing his balance trying to swerve round them without unclipping.
He made a choice that he wasn’t going to stop, he tried to go round a child who had their back to him and had no idea he was there, where it was clearly going to be tricky to pass, and at best it went wrong – and at worst he was irritated and decided to vent his frustration on a child.
In either case the consequences are entirely on him.
The shove made him look bad, but suing made him look worse, and now he’s reaping the results via the Streisand Effect.
My impression watching the video at the time was that part of the responsibility lay with the mother. Yes he should have slowed more but as he approached she stepped to the side which I would interpret as giving way, and that she would keep her child close to her rather than leaving them in the path of the cyclist.
Just checked the video to ensure I wasn’t misremembering, I wasn’t but I think you are. The mother stops walking and looks back when the cyclist sounds his horn (doesn’t step aside though), less than a second later he rides into the kid. 100% the cyclist’s fault. Even if she had stepped aside it would still be 100% the cyclist’s fault if he assumed from one person moving that the other would do the same instead of actually relying on the evidence of his eyes. “Sorry I hit you, I thought you were going to get out of my way” isn’t much of a defence.
“Sorry I hit you, I thought you were going to get out of my way” isn’t much of a defence
Its still a much better defence than the one he has actually been peddling which is quite impressive.
“I did what any good cyclist does and rang my bell several times, but they obviously didn’t hear me, so I cycled past, …”
No you didn’t. You should have uncleated, stopped and engaged with the mother. Maximum caution is required when riding past children and groups with children because they may behave unexpectedly.
What was supposed to be a close pass became a minor incident. Unluckily for this rider, the dad had his camera at the ready. One of these days.
This. Anyone who cycles (and anyone who has children) knows they can behave unpredictably. God knows I -while trying to be safe- had a couple of heart stopping moments with my young son where I was very glad that others exercised reasonable care.
An adult cyclist has a duty of care toward them, especially as he was riding on a shared use path and as a local he should have known that many people go out walking there whenever it has snowed. But no, Mr bike club president hit his loud horn and expected everyone to scramble so he could sail by.
I haven’t seen the video but three comments:
First was the little girl OK??? (and why has no one else asked this)
Second no cyclist should be passing should EVER be passing that close to a 5 year old, they are unpredictable and a hand stretched out to a moving wheel could have consequences that don’t bear thinking about. I’m stunned that a cycling club president would be that reckless.
Second (to be even handed) why was a father able to video what was happening but not intervene to ensure his 5-year old wasn’t in harm’s way? Really basic parenting.
Obviously far more to this than is reported here.
No one else has asked because this story has been running on here since it happened five years ago so I think pretty much everyone knows that yes, the little girl was fine apart from being naturally upset.
Oh and by the way, if you haven’t seen the video then accusing the father of neglect for not intervening is extremely unfair. He’s just videoing his partner and kids (his partner is right next to the kid), the cyclist appears in the background, sounds his horn and is up with and banging into the kid within two seconds of appearing. The father shouts a warning but that’s all he could do, the mother didn’t have time to react either as obviously nobody actually expects a cyclist to barge past a small child like that and (quite probably deliberately) push them out of the way with their knee. No blame for either parent, it’s 100% on the cyclist.
As usual I’m afraid the comments demonstrate nothing but emotion and prejudice. The cyclist was found criminally liable and served a suspended prison sentence. He therefore was found guilty of carelessness etc etc etc.
However, it is in the civil courts where he mounted a case against the child’s father for filming him and posting his film on the net. The father’s act was arguably gratuitous, vexatious and clearly did besmirch his character. He had already paid a heavy price (not the 1 euro) and should have been left alone.
I would urge fellow cyclists to please comment on the facts of this story rather than opining on a case that has already been concluded with a criminal conviction.
Would you? How frightfully pompous of you. The case has been concluded, everyone is entitled to have an opinion on it and there’s no obligation for that opinion to concur with the verdict of the court. It’s called freedom of speech or some such.
By the way, if you’re so keen on the facts, the cyclist did not “serve a suspended prison sentence”. Although Belgium does have suspended sentences in the same way as the UK, in this case the court “suspended pronouncement of sentence” where no sentence is passed and if the defendant adheres to any conditions set by the court and does not reoffend then no sentence is passed once a court-mandated period is over. It’s a way of not giving the defendant a criminal record if they behave themselves; with a suspended sentence that’s not an option.
Sounds a lot fairer than the English lock-em-up and throw away the key judicial system.
That’s a pretty foolish comment given that the most frequently-levelled complaint at the English justice system is that it is too soft on offenders and that it’s too easy to get away with suspended sentences or minor sanctions, as frequently seen on here when drivers who kill walk away from court with a tap on the wrist, a fine equating to less than a week’s wages and a few points on their licence.
So the equivalent of a “deferred sentence” in the English & Welsh criminal justice system? Or “Deferred adjudication” in some parts of the USA apparently.
Not quite the same, no: a deferred sentence in the UK means that sentencing is postponed to a later date so that the defendant can prove they have addressed the offending behaviour (most usually drug addicts showing that they have sought treatment and are getting clean), if the court is then satisfied they have complied with the conditions set a lighter sentence is given, e.g. suspended rather than custodial. However, the defendant is still sentenced and still gets a criminal record. In the Belgian system, if sentencing is suspended and the defendant has complied with the conditions set by the court then after a set period the defendant is discharged without being sentenced to anything and so does not receive a criminal record.
There is also some option to set aside the judgement, can’t remember the term, which (if that is the case) I assume could then be availed of at the deferred judgement, if the defendant had behaved well?
As far as I know (though I am not a lawyer) a guilty verdict can only be set aside if there is proof of an error in law, an error in fact, or procedural unfairness. Otherwise once you’re found guilty you stay guilty, although the sentence can be mitigated after a deferred sentencing as mentioned.
Many commenters here hail from common law countries where everyone is free to make a video of things happening in public, and where truth can’t be defamation. Those rules make sense to us.
It’s hard to reconcile any belief in freedom of speech with a system that allows someone to sue the man who shared a video of him committing a crime. If you don’t want people to think you’re the sort of person who might knock over a five-year-old, the right course of action is to avoid knocking over a five-year-old, rather than to knock over a five-year-old and then sue the child’s father.
Sharing the video did not besmirch the aggressor’s character; it revealed his character.
Well said, it absolutely beggars belief that having committed a crime the perpetrator tried to get compensation for the evidence of that crime being made available; even more extraordinary that the course originally accepted his claim.
course = courts, once again road.cc, can we please have the edit function back?!
Playing muppet’s advocate for a moment, the court found that he had been careless/reckless, but the commentary accompanying the video suggested that he’d done it deliberately. So he could argue that it harmed his reputation in that it gave the impression he was a violent muppet, rather than just the muppet he was.
Does anyone have a link for the full clip?
It’s embedded in this article: https://metro.co.uk/2026/03/06/cyclist-kneed-girl-5-path-ordered-pay-less-1-compensation-27257359/
Thanks.
The way he looks to the kid and /then/ gets his knee out makes me think the “I was just balancing” story might have been bullshit.
Let’s turn it on its head and pretend the cyclist was a car driver, and the pedestrian was a cyclist. “I did nothing wrong, I sounded my horn a number of times. I clearly hadn’t been heard so overtook and accidentally clipped them”
russellwheeler wrote “Let’s turn it on its head and pretend the cyclist was a car driver, and the pedestrian was a cyclist. “I did nothing wrong, I sounded my horn a number of times. I clearly hadn’t been heard so overtook and accidentally clipped them”
Completely agree. It’s exactly what a driver would say right down to the use of the word accident rather than avoidable collision.
“My friends recognised me and kept asking about what happened, and I told them it was an accident, just one of those things.”
Really, if he’s tried for something the social media post should have been removed. It could easily prejdice the outcome of any court case.
I’m sure he didn’t mean to knock the child over, but it didn’t look great on the video. I’d be devasted if I was the cyclist and I saw that video afterwards.
I disagree on your second point, looking at the video in slow motion it’s quite clear that the cyclist looked down at the child, saw they were in the way and deliberately stuck their knee out to push them away. He may not have meant to hit her so hard and it was most likely instinctive rather than premeditated, but it was still deliberate, in my view.
On the more substantive point of the risk of prejudicing a court case, that doesn’t apply here. In the UK people are asked not to share footage of offences in case a potential juror will see it and arrive at court with their mind already made up; Belgium only has juries at the Assizes Court, which is reserved for the most serious offences (murder, terrorism and so on). This case would never go before a jury and the magistrates and judges are presumed to be professional and intelligent enough not to be influenced by anything but the evidence presented in court.
Yes the kid is wandering on the path 🤷, walk with family etc, but to force yaself past and subsequently knock her over it’s well out of order!, and to make it worse IT’S XMAS DAY…guys a tosser of the highest order, let’s get cyclists an even worse name then we’ve already got!
Disgraceful! Why isn’t the child wearing hi-viz and a helmet? It’s about time children took some responsibility for their safety.
Even if sticking the knee out was him balancing, the fact he hit that little girl should have had him stopping immediately and apologising profusely. He didn’t, he chose to continue, and now everyone thinks he’s a ghoul.
Which he is.