A cyclist who was filmed kneeing a girl in the face to send her crashing to the floor has been told to pay just 86p in compensation.
The man, who has not been named, sparked outrage online after footage emerged of him appearing to deliberately knee a toddler in his path in a park in the Ardennes region of Belgium on Christmas Day.
The video was posted by the child’s father, Patrick Mpasa, who claimed the cyclist refused to apologize for the instance.
A court in the Belgian city of Verviers has now ruled the man in his 60s was guilty of deliberately kneeing the girl.
But the judge opted for a lenient suspended sentence, arguing that the man had no intention of harming the girl, the incident was minor and he lacked antecedents.
He also said the social media furore around the clip has seen the man already be roundly criticized and pointed out he had spent time in custody at the time of the incident.
Instead, the court ruled he must pay the girl’s family a symbolic €1 (86p) in compensation for the incident.
The cyclist claimed last month he hit the girl by accident after his rear wheel slid off.
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“To avoid a fall, I brought myself back into balance with a movement of the knee,” he said. “I felt that I hit the girl, but did not immediately realise that she had fallen.”
But his version of events was dismissed, with he judge ruling: “He gave the child a knee thrust out of sheer annoyance because for the umpteenth time an obstacle came his way.”
Although he faced up to a year in prison, the court eventually decided to hand him a suspended sentence, meaning he will not face any penalties for his actions if he does not reoffend. The case is now closed.