Two men face prison for running down NHS worker with car in targeted attack

Katungua Tjitendero, 25, was struck by a Honda on the afternoon of July 22 2020 near Southmead Hospital in Bristol.

Katungua Tjitendero was hit by the car and suffered injuries including a broken leg, nose and cheekbone (Claire Hayhurst/PA)

Two men are facing prison after being convicted of conspiring to inflict grievous bodily harm on an NHS worker who was left seriously injured after being hit by a car that mounted the pavement as he made his way home from work.

Katungua Tjitendero, 25, was struck by a Honda on the afternoon of July 22 2020 near Southmead Hospital in Bristol.

As he lay on the floor, he heard two men running away and one of them said the “n-word”, Bristol Crown Court heard.

Phillip Adams, 26, and Patrick James, 22, who were in the car, were convicted by a jury of conspiracy to inflict grievous bodily harm.

The jury heard Mr Tjitendero suffered a fractured fibula, fractured nose and lacerations to his head and both shins and required surgery.

In a video interview recorded by police the following day, a visibly injured Mr Tjitendero described how his head hit the windscreen of the blue Honda Accord.

The musician, from Bristol, said he had been looking at music videos on his phone and wearing headphones when he was suddenly “hit by a car”.

In the police interview, Mr Tjitendero told officers: “At first, I just thought it was some sort of crash.

“Then when they got out and said what they said… It is just two white kids and then they do that and say the n-word and run off. I was just, like, wow.

“I definitely heard the n-word. I can’t really remember what they looked like, I just remember two white males.

“They just got out of the car. As soon as they hit me, they left the car and ran off.”

Eyewitness Alison Adams told how she saw the car take a “sharp turn to the right and aim straight into where the houses were”. She described how the two men who ran from the vehicle had their hoods pulled up, with one wearing a “Scream” type mask, and the other with a scarf over his face.

“By that time, I realised someone had been hit by the car going into the wall,” she added.

Anjali Gohil, prosecuting, said James and Adams were inside the Honda travelling around the Southmead area “looking” for Mr Tjitendero.

A scientific examination of the car afterwards found Adams’s DNA on the inflated driver’s airbag, and James’s DNA on the front passenger window, Miss Gohil said.

Two other men, Jordan McCarthy, 22, and Daniel Whereatt, 51, who were accused of being in a nearby getaway car, were acquitted of conspiring to inflict grievous bodily harm.

James was also convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent following 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.

Mr Ford suffered a rib fracture, a haemothorax, a lung injury and blood in his chest.

The offence only came to light after James was arrested in connection with the attack on Mr Tjitendero and a video was recovered from his mobile phone which showed a car mounting the pavement and hitting a cyclist.

James, of Lawrence Weston, Bristol, and Adams, of Southmead, Bristol, who was absent for the trial, will be sentenced on Monday.

Detective Superintendent Mike Buck, who led the investigation, said: “From nowhere, a car attacked Mr Tjitendero from behind. He had no chance and was left with devastating injuries.

“It was later in the investigation – some time later, in fact – that we identified this attack on Julian Ford, only 10 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.

“On behalf of the investigative team I’d like to thank Mr Tjitendero and his family, and Mr Ford, for their patience and support over the past four years as we built this case.”