A 16-year-old boy has been sentenced to three years and two months in a young offenders institution for killing a man with a YoBike.

The teenager placed a YoBike in the path of 20-year-old motorcyclist Michael Lee Rice as he rode by the Fulford pub, in Hartcliffe, on April 5 this year.

Mr Rice - who was not wearing a helmet as he rode the stolen Honda Fireblade - applied his front brake before going headfirst over the handlebars. He went into the back of a parked van and died instantly.

The 16-year-old denied murder, manslaughter and causing a danger to road-users. But, on the fifth day of his trial, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a shock move.

As the boy was sentenced, members of Mr Rice's family sat in the public gallery wearing white T-shirts with 'Rest in Paradise My Boy' written on them.

Following Mr Rice's death, his family described him as a "cheeky and loving" man.

The court heard the boy - who cannot be named for legal reasons - had experienced domestic violence as well as bullying in his childhood and had been taken into care.

The 16-year-old first appeared before the courts at the age of 11, and has previous convictions for violence and an offence committed in the presence of youngsters.

During sentencing, defence counsel Andrew Langdon QC said the boy is "horrified" by the "unintended consequences" of his act and hoped one day to apologise to Mr Rice's family.

He also said the boy's father had died since the incident, meaning he was unable to attend the funeral.

'You were doing it to impress the teenagers around you'

(Image: Avon and Somerset Police)

During the sentencing, the Recorder of Bristol His Honour Judge Peter Blair QC said Mr Rice should not have lost his life and whatever sentence he passed would be regarded as cheap.

He told him: "When you took that decision to do that dangerous thing you were doing it to impress the teenagers around you.

“It was a reckless act.”

The court heard Mr Rice could not avoid the YoBike.

(Image: Avon and Somerset Police)

In a panic reaction he put on the front brake as he pulled the wheelie, he was thrown off the motorbike and hit the parked van.

The judge said: “You were responsible for that."

He said there was "only one possible sentence" open to him for the "grave crime" and handed the boy five per cent credit for his guilty three. He sentenced him to three years and two months in a young offenders institution.

How the crash unfolded

(Image: Avon and Somerset Police)

During the trial Adam Vaitilingam QC, prosecuting, told Bristol Crown Court the motorbike had been stolen a day earlier and Mr Rice was riding it around the streets of Hartcliffe.

He said Mr Rice was from Knowle West and there was "clearly no love lost" between young men from those two areas.

The prosecutor said: "For a Knowle Wester to be riding that motorbike in a provocative way through the heart of Hartcliffe was no doubt designed to wind them up, and it had exactly that effect on the boy."

The jury watched CCTV footage from the scene and heard from people present at the time.

A young witness told police she was in Hartcliffe when friends of her’s retrieved a YoBike from a stream.

The witness said she was then in Fulford Road when a man on a loud superbike came by, not wearing a helmet, going “really fast”.

She said older lads were looking out of the Fulford House pub window and a group came out including the boy.

She said he asked everyone: “Who’s that on the bike?”

She told him she didn’t know, she said, and no-one else knew who it was.

Shortly after, she said, two people came up with their hoods up - one of whom was the boy.

With that the biker approached again and a male voice shouted “get stuff ready to put in the road”.

She said she didn’t see who then put the YoBike into the road before the motorbike came back down the road and did a wheelie over the bicycle.

The rider - Mr Rice - lost control and was flipped over the handlebars into a parked van. He died at the scene.

(Image: Avon and Somerset Police)

You can read full coverage of the trial here.

Boy wishes, one day, to apologise in person to Mr Rice's family

During the sentencing, Mr Langdon told the court: “He was and remains horrified by the unintended consequences of his act."

He said it was his client’s wish, one day, to apologise in person to the deceased’s family and maintains he had no intention to kill.

Mr Langdon said: “He did not intend grievous bodily harm.

“He did not intend any injury.

“He did not see Rice’s acceleration and tried to pull the bicycle out of the way.”

For the latest news in and around Bristol, check back on Bristol Live's homepage.