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Two individuals are facing imprisonment after being found guilty of conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm to an NHS employee, who sustained severe injuries after being struck by a vehicle that mounted the sidewalk while he was returning home from work.
Katungua Tjitendero, aged 25, was hit by a Honda on the afternoon of July 22, 2020, close to Southmead Hospital in Bristol.
As he lay on the ground, he heard two men fleeing the scene, one of whom uttered the ‘n-word’, as revealed in court at Bristol Crown.
Phillip Adams, aged 26, and Patrick James, aged 22, both occupants of the car, were convicted by a jury for conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.
James was also convicted of grievous bodily harm after it was revealed that he had livestreamed another hit-and-run involving a cyclist just 10 days prior to the attack on Mr. Tjitendero.
The jury learned that Mr. Tjitendero endured a fractured fibula, a broken nose, and multiple lacerations to his head and both shins, necessitating extensive reconstructive surgery.
In a video interview conducted by police the day after the incident, a visibly hurt Mr. Tjitendero recounted how his head collided with the windscreen of the blue Honda Accord.
The musician, hailing from Bristol, stated that he was engrossed in music videos on his phone and wearing headphones when he was unexpectedly ‘struck by a car’.
During the police interview, Mr. Tjitendero explained: ‘At first, I thought it was just an ordinary crash.’
‘Then they exited the car and uttered what they did… It was just two white youths, and then they did that and used the n-word before running away. I was just taken aback.’
‘I distinctly heard the n-word. I can’t precisely recall their appearances, just that they were two white males.’
‘They immediately exited the vehicle. After colliding with me, they abandoned the car and fled.’
Eyewitness Alison Adams recounted seeing the car make a ‘sharp right turn, directing straight towards the houses.’ She described the two men escaping from the vehicle with their hoods up, one wearing a ‘Scream’ type mask, and the other obscured by a scarf.
‘At that moment, I realized someone had indeed been struck by the vehicle going into the wall,’ she added.
Anjali Gohil, the prosecutor, stated that James and Adams were within the Honda driving around the Southmead area ‘looking’ for Mr. Tjitendero.
A forensic examination of the vehicle later revealed Adams’s DNA on the deployed driver’s airbag and James’s DNA on the front passenger window, according to Miss Gohil.
Two other individuals, Jordan McCarthy, 22, and Daniel Whereatt, 51, who were suspected to be in a nearby getaway vehicle, were found not guilty of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.
Additionally, James was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent following a similar incident just 10 days earlier in Avonmouth, where a Ford C-Max mounted the pavement and knocked a cyclist, Julian Ford, off his bike.
Mr. Ford sustained injuries that included a fractured rib, a hemothorax, lung damage, and internal bleeding.
The offense only came to light after James was arrested regarding the incident involving Mr. Tjitendero, during which a video was found on his mobile phone showing a car betraying the pavement and striking a cyclist.
James, from Lawrence Weston, Bristol, and Adams, from Southmead, Bristol, who was absent during the trial, are scheduled for sentencing on Monday.
Detective Superintendent Mike Buck, who oversaw the investigation, remarked: “Out of nowhere, a vehicle assaulted Mr. Tjitendero from behind. He had no opportunity to evade it and was left with catastrophic injuries.”
‘It was later in our investigation, in fact after considerable time, that we identified the prior attack on Julian Ford, just ten days earlier, realizing the connection that these were not isolated incidents but two linked attacks.’
‘Patrick James recorded the incident, and you can hear him on the footage, along with the driver, laughing both before and afterwards as they escape. It’s utterly appalling.’
‘On behalf of the investigation team, I wish to express gratitude to Mr. Tjitendero and his family, as well as Mr. Ford, for their understanding and support over the past four years as we developed this case.’
Contact our news team by sending an email to webnews@metro.co.uk.
For additional stories like this, visit our news page.
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