Elwood bus driver learns his fate in court for assault on cops

A Melbourne bus driver who refused to get the Covid vaccine took part in a wild inner city anti-lockdown rally and threw glass bottles and rocks at police.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 18: Police deploy capsicum spray onto protestors on Burnley Street Richmond on September 18, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. Anti-lockdown protesters gathered despite current COVID-19 restrictions prohibiting large outdoor gatherings. Metropolitan Melbourne is currently subject to lockdown restrictions as health authorities work to contain the spread of the highly contagious Delta COVID-19 variant, with people only permitted to leave their homes for essential reasons. Victorian COVID-19 restrictions have been eased from today in Metropolitan Melbourne to allow outdoor picnics and small exercise groups, while the permitted travel distance from home has extended to 10km. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

A bus driver who refused to get the Covid vaccine and threw a glass soft drink bottle and stones at police, wounding several officers during a wild inner city anti-lockdown rally, has been jailed.

Ulric Wharerau, 53, earlier pleaded guilty to causing injury recklessly, assaulting an emergency worker on duty, resisting an emergency worker on duty and negligently dealing with the proceeds of crime.

He was sentenced in the County Court on Tuesday to seven months and two weeks in jail on all charges and fined $1250.

Wharerau defied the chief health officer’s instruction on September 16, 2021 for him to stay home and attended the “freedom” rally in Richmond the next morning.

He decided to join the rally because he was struggling to cope with the effects of the pandemic, and faced losing his job as a Ventura bus driver as he refused to get the Covid vaccine.

Protesters gather on the steps of Parliament House on November 27, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

His actions left one officer with a cut above his eye and another with swelling and bruising to his jaw and a damaged tooth.

He took a backpack with food and four bottles of orange soft drink before riding his bike from the Botanical Gardens to the rally.

Police were already there creating a cordon to stop protesters from moving any further with Wharerau joining the march on Bridge Rd.

At 12.30pm, after police had used OC spray on another protester, Wharerau threw a 250ml glass bottle of soft drink “overarm baseball style” deliberately towards an officer, striking him to the right side of his eyebrow and dislodging his glasses. The bottle then struck another officer to the lower left side of his jaw, leaving him with swelling and bruising and a chipped tooth.

Thousands of people took to the streets during Covid to protest over the lockdowns (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Shortly after Wharerau was standing with a group of protesters outside McDonald’s on Bridge Rd where he threw another glass bottle at another police officer but it missed and smashed onto the ground.

He also threw a handful of small round rocks at another officer who wasn’t injured.

Wharerau was then arrested a short time afterwards after police used OC spray on him when he tried to run away.

An inflatable caricature of then-Premier Daniel Andrews was a feature of anti-lockdown protests. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

He told police his actions were in retaliation of being sprayed which “took him over the edge”. He said police were stopping the protesters from doing what they wanted to do.

But Judge Gavan Meredith said the many Victorians affected by Covid lockdowns didn’t resort to violence the way Wharerau did.

“Whatever your grievance may have been, your actions were inexcusable. In my view, they were cowardly,” he said.

Wharerau argued a term of imprisonment would weigh heavily on him given his inability to care for his family, including his daughter who he shares custody of. But the prosecution pushed for a six-month mandatory prison sentence, and said there was nothing exceptional about what Wharerau experienced during the pandemic.