Shane Mahoney, 26, pleads guilty to road rage incident

A St Leonards man was high on Xanax when he threatened a pair of cyclists with a chisel and golf club before disrupting traffic on a “notorious” Bellarine road.

The Ambulance Station at the intersection of Swan Bay Rd and Queenscliff-Portarlington Rd. Picture: Google

A St Leonards man was high on Xanax when he threatened a pair of cyclists with a chisel and golf club before disrupting traffic on a “notorious” Bellarine road.

Shane Mahoney, 26, appeared in Geelong Magistrates Court on Thursday and pleaded guilty to five offences stemming from a road rage incident on September 28 last year.

Seven other charges were withdrawn on his guilty plea.

The court heard that Mahoney was driving south along Queenscliff-Portarlington Rd when he drove past two cyclists.

At the road’s intersection with Swan Bay Rd, Mahoney swerved his vehicle onto the shoulder of the road, cutting the two cyclists off.

Mahoney was aggressive, the court heard, yelling at the victims and prompting them to flee west onto Swan Bay Rd.

Mahoney followed in his car, producing a chisel from the centre console and making “stabbing motions” across the passenger seat at one of the cyclists.

Soon after, Mahoney drove ahead and got out of his car brandishing a golf club, walking towards the two cyclists “while yelling and swinging” it, the court heard.

Fearing for his life, of the victims fled to a nearby ambulance station to seek help.

Mahoney again followed, but his car broke down.

A short while later, witnesses spotted Mahoney next to his car and slowed down to provide assistance, before seeing Mahoney hit his own car “several times” with the golf club and disrupt traffic by standing in the road.

At one point he was seen “punching a ute several times”, the court heard, forcing the ute to mount a traffic island to get away.

When police arrived, they found Mahoney acting erratically, however he declined a breath test and “ran northbound … yelling and waving at cars” before climbing a fence into a farm.

On September 30, Mahoney was arrested at his home in St Leonards, where police found cannabis in his car.

When interviewed, Mahoney told police he couldn’t remember much of the episode due to drug use, mainly Xanax.

Mahoney’s lawyer, Caetlyn Wells-Simon, told the court her client’s offending occurred in the context of a relationship with his now-ex partner, which was “punctuated with drug use”.

Ms Wells-Simon said Mahoney, who works as a spray painter, had been working on his car when he had a dispute with his partner and drove away.

She said Mahoney now lived with his parents, had limited his drug use to just cannabis and “a lot of those tempting factors have been removed”.

She said he was in the process of securing a mental healthcare plan and other treatment programs.

Magistrate Simon Guthrie impressed upon Mahoney the seriousness of the charges, telling him they had the potential to land him behind bars.

He noted how the cyclists must have felt being threatened by a chisel, and described the stretch of road as “notorious”.

Mahoney will be assessed for a community corrections order and will return to court next week.

In the meantime, Mr Guthrie told Mahoney had some “homework” and to make sure he attended appointments with his GP and Meli.

Mr Guthrie made orders for the destruction of the chisel, golf club and cannabis, and disqualified Mahoney from driving for two years.

Originally published as Shane Mahoney, 26, pleads guilty to road rage incident