Chapel St hit-run driver Michael Panayides admits to hitting Gitta Scheenhouwer
A killer driver has admitted mowing down Dutch cyclist Gitta Scheenhouwer with a stolen white Mercedes Benz in a horror hit-run on Melbourne’s busy Chapel St.
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A killer driver has admitted mowing down Dutch cyclist Gitta Scheenhouwer in a horror hit-run on Melbourne’s busy Chapel St.
Michael Panayides, 27, is facing up to 20 years’ jail after today pleading guilty in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to culpable driving causing the death of Ms Scheenhouwer on August 12 last year.
Appearing via video link and wearing a shirt bearing the white ribbon bow — often worn to raise awareness about violence against women — Panayides also pleaded guilty to recklessly causing injury, failing to stop and render assistance, car theft, and negligently dealing with proceeds of crime.
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CCTV captured Panayides speeding down Chapel St in South Yarra in a stolen white Mercedes Benz SUV before swerving into the cycling lane near the Simmons St junction and pinning Ms Scheenhouwer against another car.
Passers-by and paramedics tried desperately to save her but she died at the scene.
Witnesses told police they saw Panayides grab some belongings from the car, which had been stolen from an Elsternwick home a week earlier, before fleeing.
He was arrested two days later in Bourke St in the CBD after police released an image of him and a member of the public reported seeing him.
In a statement in the days after her death, Ms Scheenhouwer’s family remembered her as a “sweet, spontaneous and cheerful girl”.’
She had been in Australia “living the dream” on a working visa with her boyfriend.
“We can hardly put into words the deep pain and feelings of overwhelming sadness and sorrow at the loss of Gitta Scheenhouwer who was taken from all of us,” the family said.
“She will always be in our hearts as the sweet, spontaneous, cheerful girl who was always busy with all of the things she wanted to do whilst smiling from ear to ear.”
Panayides was remanded to face a directions hearing in the County Court on Thursday.