Rohan Dennis: Champion cyclist pleads guilty over Olympian wife’s death in Australia

Former world champion bike owner Rohan Dennis has pleaded responsible to a cost associated to the dying of his spouse, fellow Olympian Melissa Hoskins, who was killed in a automotive incident exterior their residence in Adelaide on 30 December final 12 months.

Hoskins was struck by a car pushed by Dennis, and though he was initially charged with harmful driving inflicting dying, he admitted to the lesser cost of making the chance of hurt.

Jane Abbey KC, representing Dennis, knowledgeable the court docket on Tuesday that each the protection and prosecution had agreed to drop the unique expenses, with an aggravated cost of making the chance of hurt being introduced as a substitute.

“What’s agreed that may occur in the present day is that there shall be a plea to depend three … the unique expenses shall be dropped,” Ms Abbey mentioned within the court docket to Justice of the Peace Justin Wickens.

The cost acknowledges that Dennis’s actions had been reckless, although it doesn’t maintain him liable for his spouse’s dying. “So there was no intention of Mr Dennis to hurt his spouse and this cost doesn’t cost him with any duty for her dying,” she mentioned.

Dennis, 34, who retired from biking in 2023, shall be sentenced at a later date.

Mr Wickens advised the court docket that Dennis was driving whereas his spouse was close to or on the car, both realizing it was more likely to trigger hurt or being recklessly detached to the potential for hurt. The offense was thought-about aggravated as a result of the couple was in a relationship.

Hoskins, 32, sustained severe accidents within the incident and was taken by paramedics to Royal Adelaide Hospital for therapy, the place she later handed away.

The cost carries a most sentence of seven years in jail and a five-year driving ban.

Dennis, who pleaded responsible, was launched on bail and is ready to be sentenced within the district court docket on 24 January.

Hoskins was laid to relaxation in her hometown of Perth in January this 12 months, and a public memorial service was held in Adelaide in February, the place Dennis attended with their two kids.

Hoskins, a world champion and two-time Olympian, acquired tributes worldwide following her dying. Hoskins and Dennis married in 2018.

Hoskins competed within the 2012 and 2016 Olympics within the staff pursuit and was a part of the squad that gained the 2015 world title in the identical occasion. Dennis, a two-time world champion within the street time trial, additionally gained silver within the staff pursuit on the 2012 Olympics and bronze within the street time trial at Tokyo 2020.

Dennis made historical past in 2015 by turning into the seventh Australian to put on the Tour de France yellow jersey and in addition gained the 2015 Tour Down Underneath.

On social media, customers had been offended on the lesser cost. One wrote: “Livid, he struck a plea deal to a lesser cost, does that imply it was a lesser dying? Or the dying of a lesser human, or a lesser Mum, or a lesser spouse, or a lesser champion bike owner?”