Four teenagers sentenced for GBH car attack in Bristol

Four teenagers have received custodial sentences totalling more than 20 years after deliberately crashing a stolen car into a bike rider causing the victim significant injuries in Bristol last year. 

Zak Goldsmith, Harrison Dodds and two juvenile teenagers were all within the car that was driven at a 19-year-old man. The victim sustained multiple physical injuries, including a fractured skull and a bleed on the brain. 

The four defendants were identified following an extensive investigation and detectives discovered mobile footage of the incident on one of their phones. 

Emergency services were called to the junction of Mowcroft Road and Hareclive Road at approximately 5.30pm on Thursday 29 May. 

The victim was transported to hospital where he remained for several days, before continuing his recovery at home. 

Enquiries suggested a black Mini Cooper was involved in the collision, but the driver of it failed to stop after the collision. A short time later we received a call to say a car matching that description had been left abandoned in Knowle. 

Extensive checks of CCTV footage enabled detectives to identify the four people involved, who were arrested on 25 July. 

During an examination of one of their mobile phones however, detectives discovered a video of the collision recorded by a rear-seat passenger proving the collision was deliberate.

The prosecution said the Mini was used as a ‘weapon’ and was carried out in ‘cold blood and intentionally’. 

None of the defendants explained the reason for the attack during police interview. 

Bristol Crown Court was told during the sentencing hearing today (Friday 17 April) there was another deliberate collision involving the same stolen vehicle that had happened earlier in the day, in which two other teenagers, fortunately, sustained less significant injuries. Both victims said they had seen someone exit the vehicle with a bladed weapon. 

In mitigation, defence lawyers for Goldsmith and one of the 17-year-old defendants, both denied their clients had any involvement in that incident. 

Judge Michael Cullum accepted they were not in the vehicle at the time of the first incident, but all four were when the second attack took place. 

Judge Cullum said the first incident could have been fatal on another day, but fortunately did not lead to serious injuries. 

In relation to the second collision, he highlighted that the victim’s mother could not recognise her own son in hospital, such were his injuries. 

Judge Cullum said: “There was intent to cause such an injury… You were hunting as a pack.” 

All four defendants pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm with intent to cause injury. The judge took into account their youth when sentencing and  

They were sentenced as follows: 

• Goldsmith, 19 and from Knowle, was sentenced to four years and nine months at a youth offenders’ institution after the judge acknowledged his previous good character. He received an additional sentence of two months, to be served consecutively, and a driving disqualification having previously pleaded guilty to unrelated charges of dangerous driving, driving without insurance or licence, and theft in Weston-super-Mare from October 2025. 

• Dodds, 18 of Hengrove, was sentenced to seven years and four months at a youth offenders’ institution. He received an additional sentence of four months, to be served consecutively, and a driving disqualification having pleaded guilty to unrelated charges of dangerous driving, driving without insurance or licence in Bristol from April 2025. 

• One 17-year-old boy, who denied any involvement in the first collision but accepted being the driver in the second collision, received a custodial sentence of three years and six months. 

• The second 17-year-old boy, who was seen to have a bladed weapon in the mobile footage, was given a custodial sentence of four years and nine months. 

Detective Inspector Rob Blake said: “These were deliberate attacks involving a car, and left one young man with significant injuries. 

“The sentences handed out today show that such violence will not be tolerated. We hope the conclusion of the court proceedings brings comfort to the victim and his family.

“This has been a challenging and demanding police investigation almost from the very moment it happened. 

“The car, once found after the second incident, was forensically examined and DNA evidence was secured linking the two 17-year-olds to the crime. 

“Over the years there have been a number of technological advances that can really help us investigate crime, but this case required a more traditional approach to prove who was responsible. Officers spent many a painstaking hour identifying CCTV opportunities across the city and going through the footage to try to track the Mini involved. 

“We had a real breakthrough when we found a clip of the car before the collision in Knowle, showing three of the offenders getting into the Mini and a fourth person at the wheel. Further enquiries led us to trace the suspects walking near the scene where the Mini had been left, and from there we were able to identify them. 

“The mobile phone footage of the collision helped to prove the four teenagers’ involvement and I’ve no doubt was a key reason for the guilty plea. The comments made by them before and after the collision are horrendous and leave no doubt that this was a deliberate attack.”