Katungua Tjitendero was seriously injured (Picture: Family handout)
A NHS worker suffered injuries across both his legs when a car was used as a weapon against him, a court has heard.
Katungua Tjitendero, 25, was allegedly knocked down deliberatly, breaking his leg and fracturing his nose. He also suffered cuts across his head that required plastic surgery.
He was knocked down as he walked near Southmead Hospital, Bristol, on July 22, 2020.
Phillip Adams, Patrick James, Jordan McCarthy and Daniel Whereatt have now gone on trial over the alleged attack.
Prosecutor Anjali Gohil said: ‘He was unprotected, and he had no chance to take preventative action. He was no match for a car being driven at him.
‘Mr Tjitendero was interviewed by the police and during the course of the interview he explained that he just got hit by a car.
Katungua was left seriously injured (Picture: Family handout)
He hit the windscreen of the car before being thrown into a wall (Picture: Family handout)
‘Disturbingly one or both of the two males who got out of the car and ran away shouted the “n-word”.
‘This case is not being prosecuted as a racially motivated crime rather it gives you the impression of the sort of mind of one of those running away had just after hitting Mr Tjitendero.
‘Rather than exhibit shock, or call the emergency services, help or check they were alright, they chose to shout the n-word, get out of the car and run away.
‘Such was the force that he was struck… he was flung onto the windscreen and the concrete blocks of an impacted wall fell to the ground.
‘It is the conclusion of the collision investigator that it was a deliberate act to turn the vehicle sharply to the right, mount the footpath and strike Mr Tjitendero.
‘It is the Crown’s case that the collision was deliberately planned in which each defendant participated and agreed.’
Miss Gohil told the jury it was the Crown’s case that the blue Honda Accord estate – with James, 22, and Adams, 26, allegedly inside – was travelling around the Southmead area ‘looking’ for Mr Tjitendero.
While another car, a Kia, with Whereatt, 51, driving and accompanied by 22, McCarthy, was waiting nearby to drive their co-accused away afterwards.
A scientific examination of the Honda afterwards found Adams’s DNA on the inflated drivers’ airbag, and James’s DNA on the front passenger window, Miss Gohil said.
Patrick James (left) and Jordan McCarthy are both on trial (Picture: Ben Birchall/PA Wire)
James claims he was in the Kia and a fifth, unnamed man, was the passenger in the Honda, and had not conspired to injure Mr Tjitendero.
Adams denies being either in the Kia or the Honda at the time Katungua was injured or planning to hurt him.
Kannan Siva, representing McCarthy, said there was no evidence of a ‘grudge’ between his client and Katungua and was not involved in a conspiracy.
Whereatt denies taking part in incident, or that he was involved in a conspiracy, or was ‘travelling in convoy’ with the Honda ahead of the alleged attack, or was the ‘getaway driver’.
The jury was told James was also accused of being involved in a similar incident 10 days earlier in Avonmouth in which a Ford C-Max mounted the pavement and knocked a cyclist, Julian Ford, off his bike.
Ms Siva said: ‘There are similarities between the two counts on the indictment, both involving vehicles causing serious injury as a result of being approached from behind when they were on the pavement and struck by a vehicle, which the prosecution says, was used as a weapon.’
Earlier, Judge Moira Macmillan told the jury Adams had chosen not to attend the trial and the case would continue in his absence.
Whereatt, of Bedminster, Bristol; Adams, of Southmead, Bristol; James, of Lawrence Weston, Bristol; and McCarthy, also of Lawrence Weston all deny a charge of conspiracy to inflict grievous bodily harm.
James denies a second charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Mr Ford, although he admits the alternative of inflicting grievous bodily harm.
The trial continues.
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