Bodybuilder and former Eaglehawk Secondary College teacher Ryan Geier waved knife and drove erratically

A young woman feared for her life when a flatmate started waving a knife at their sharehouse.

Former teacher Ryan Geier outside Bendigo Magistrates Court. Picture: Julieanne Strachan

An Eaglehawk teacher who rented a sharehouse with former students drove erratically with one of them in the passenger seat of his car in an act of “tomfoolery”.

The bodybuilder and former Eaglehawk Secondary College teacher, Ryan Geier, had his teaching registration cancelled for five years after facing criminal charges.

He entered pleas of guilty on Friday to careless driving and a charge of assault with a weapon, following an incident inside his car and at his home in August 2021.

There were three young women at the house at the time of the assault incident, one of whom he knew from the time she was a 16-year-old student at the school where he worked.

The court was told he never directly taught her while she was at the school.

Former Victorian school teacher Ryan Geier is a bodybuilder who competed in the Arnold Classic Australian Tour in 2016 and the International Federation of Body Building in 2015. Picture: Instagram

On Reservoir Rd, at Bendigo on August 26, 2021, he drove home from a shift at the community radio station, with a former student of Eaglehawk Secondary College in his car.

Geier veered onto the wrong side of the road causing her to grab the steering wheel and bring them back to the correct side.

He said to her “wouldn’t it be funny if I drove in the wrong lane the rest of the way home”

Later that day he waved a knife with a curved 30cm blade at one of his housemates, making her fear for her life.

He later held the blade to his own skin and “demonstrated how to do (cut) to commit suicide”.

His housemates called police who arrested him and took him to Bendigo Hospital.

Defence solicitor Robert Morgan said his client had been “grossly intoxicated at the time” and had already been substantially punished by having to move out of the rental property that night.

He had lost two thirds of a rental bond he had deposited on the property.

Geier told police in his record of interview that the flatmates had “fabricated” the story of his erratic driving and waving a knife.

However, he pleaded guilty to those charges at court.

“This was out of character, it’s a one off, it’s an aberration,” Mr Morgan said.

“The driving (incident) was tomfoolery.”

Former teacher Ryan Geier outside the Bendigo Magistrates Court on July 14, 2023. Picture: Julieanne Strachan

A psychiatric report produced for the court said Geier had expressed genuine remorse for his actions.

He had lost his ability to work with children, but had found alternative employment and had continued his volunteer work at a community radio station.

The court was told he was now a father to a five-week-old baby.

Magistrate Russell Kelly said he would issue a one year good behaviour bond, and if Geier could abide by it, the charges would be considered dismissed after that time.

“In circumstances that I can only describe as bizarre you have had some sort of psychological meltdown that no one can really explain except to point to alcohol,” Magistrate Kelly said.

“The consequences for yourself have been significant and substantial.”

Magistrate Kelly said if Geier returned to court within the next 12 months, he would be resentenced for the offences and be given harsher treatment on that occasion.