The Liberal heavyweights and pandemic agitators driving the ‘Bike Boy’ campaign haunting Daniel Andrews

The invitation was only for a select few – sent on behalf of a millionaire Liberal powerbroker. Come and hear about a colossal cover-up, it beckoned. “History is written by the brave,” declared the slick accompanying video.

The cover-up asserted is a favourite rumour on Spring Street – how former Labor premier Daniel Andrews and his wife, Catherine, supposedly got away with hitting a teenage cyclist with a government car 12 years ago. Andrews and his wife deny any wrongdoing.

This exclusive fundraiser, jointly convened with a prominent doctor and the partner of an apparent witness in the case, would be held at the very Portsea Golf Club where Andrews once allegedly caused a furore when he tried to become a member (or so another persistent rumour goes).

Self-described ‘amateur Sherlock Holmes’ Colin Robertson outlined his theory at a press conference called by now Opposition Leader Brad Battin in 2023.Credit: Paul Jeffers

Yet, within days, those invites had to be hastily reissued. The golf club told The Age that once it realised what last Sunday’s fundraiser was for, it wanted nothing to do with it. The new invitations called it a scheduling error.

“It was too hot for them,” says Colin Robertson, a self-described amateur detective who has been investigating the crash for almost three years as part of the “official Bike Boy Scandal” campaign. “But how did you find out about the fundraiser?” he asked The Age.

That 2013 crash, in which the Andrews’ car collided with 15-year-old cyclist Ryan Meuleman while Catherine was driving the family back from a beach near Portsea, is perhaps one of the most publicly dissected traffic accidents in Victoria’s history. Long after police closed the case without finding driver fault, and an anti-corruption probe cleared those police of wrongdoing in their investigation, a team of citizen sleuths has combed through every last detail. They claim that the police deliberately botched the case, most notably by not breath-testing Catherine or Daniel Andrews, and that Ryan was pressured to stay silent.

Tales of a cover-up have resurfaced again and again down the years, questions Andrews has batted away at press conference after press conference. (Neither Daniel nor Catherine Andrews would speak to The Age for this article.)

Now, with the case about to be ventilated in a civil courtroom this year, as the Meulemans sue their former lawyers Slater and Gordon over Ryan’s compensation deal, The Age has discovered new links between the campaign and high-profile Liberals, as well as far-right agitators still railing against Andrews-era COVID lockdowns, such as Avi Yemini.

The campaign has been backed by now-Opposition Leader Brad Battin, and today enjoys fundraising help from Liberal heavyweights such as former treasurer Andrew Abercrombie and recently returned MP Moira Deeming.

Others involved in organising the online campaign are the same cast of characters who pushed the “Slug Gate” campaign alleging corruption against health officials, as well as conspiracies around Andrews’ serious fall down the steps of his holiday home in 2021 that landed the then-premier in intensive care.

In recent weeks, the mysterious “Bike Boy Scandal” campaign has launched a flurry of videos and ads online, touting “explosive new evidence” and raising more than $230,000 for two separate lawsuits by the Meuleman family, including a newly proposed defamation suit against Andrews and his wife.

Those running the campaign insist it’s about justice, not politics, led by locals volunteering their time to rally around Ryan, who was badly injured in the crash, losing most of his spleen.

But former lawyers for the Meuleman family have raised concerns the campaign is no longer about Ryan’s best interests. The Age has confirmed the Meuleman family is not in control of the funds raised, and a small “steering committee” of external advisers has been driving litigation decisions.

In a rare interview, Ryan Meuleman, now 27, tells this masthead he feels “in control … pretty much calling the shots” in the campaign. “I’m not worried about that.”

Brad Battin organised the 2023 press conference to talk about the incident.Credit: Paul Jeffers

The state’s new Liberal leader Battin once openly endorsed the Bike Boy “quest for justice”. In 2023, he even appeared alongside Robertson at a press conference in which journalists were taken through a room full of 3D models and Robertson was wrongly presented as a crash expert. “They’ll write a book about this,” Battin declared. Robertson later clarified to The Age that he was a product and design engineer (“I’m really just some random guy who had questions and decided to be an amateur Sherlock Holmes.“) And Battin was swiftly pulled up by colleagues for going rogue and using unsanctioned external PR.

This month, Battin refused repeated requests from The Age to answer questions about any current involvement with the Bike Boy team.

The campaign has been supplied documents about the case obtained from police and other agencies under freedom of information laws by the state Liberals.

Last Sunday, Liberal multimillionaire Abercrombie “rallied the troops” to convene the invite-only fundraiser, according to the Meulemans, but has not been publicly linked to the campaign before. He did not attend, as he was still overseas, but told The Age his interest was in “seeking justice for Ryan and holding Andrews accountable”.

In the early days of the pandemic, Abercrombie found himself at the centre of a media storm when attendees at his ski lodge party in Aspen, Colorado, unleashed a wave of COVID-19 upon their return to Melbourne. Later, with his company among many losing money under lockdowns, he led a business campaign against the Andrews government restrictions.

When asked about his involvement in the Bike Boy campaign given his time as a Liberal party heavyweight, Abercrombie urged The Age to “connect the dots” between the scandal and “the COVID supervision farce in Victoria ... deaths in old folks homes, the longest lockdown in the world, Slug Gate, and Dan’s ‘broken back’ fantasy”.

Deeming, who has personally donated to the campaign and has offered advice to those driving it, says the case is “bigger than Dan”. “This government has form,” she says, citing previous Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission probes.

“There’s enough [questions] there for a proper investigation. I was moved by what happened to that family … both as a mother, and as someone who knows what it’s like to come up against powerful people, and legal institutions.”

‘Good Samaritans’

Much of the money raised so far has already been spent on legal fees, experts and promotion. That’s according to Robertson and PR veteran Rohan Wenn, the other key figure behind the campaign. Wenn, who by day works for independent MPs, offered the Meulemans his media nous pro bono in 2022, when the story resurfaced again during the last state election. The campaign is now urging people to donate more.

The Meuleman family confirmed they cannot access the money raised – the fund to pay for lawsuits (as well as a company serving as trustee for any potential money won in court) was set up under the control of Wenn and Robertson, but is intended to flow to the family. Ryan says “it’s still to be worked out” and the pair are in regular contact with him on strategy. “[They’re] just trying to help me and guide me. They never said, ‘You have to do this’ ... I’m feeling pretty good about it all.”

Ryan was hospitalised for 10 days after the crash, with broken ribs and internal bleeding. His father, Peter, who has at times been estranged from Ryan but early on suspected a cover-up, has often spoken for his son to the press.

“He doesn’t really know the details, we’re trying to protect him from the process,” Peter tells The Age.

“I’m certainly not the captain of this ship [either]. I bob up and do the face of the family but those behind the scenes, [Wenn, Robertson] and others – smarter minds than myself – are driving it.”

It is those “good Samaritans” who initiated both lawsuits by the Meuleman family, Peter says, and decided which lawyers to hire. “Ultimately, [Ryan and I] will put our name and signature to it, but a lot of counsel is coming our way ... and I’m so grateful for it. They have our best interests at heart. No one has come to us with a political agenda.”

“We gave that family a strategy they didn’t know they had,” says Wenn. “But all this, and [any potential] money, is for Ryan’s welfare and the family. No one else.”

The bike Ryan Meuleman was riding during the 2013 crash.Credit: Sherryn Groch

“Poor Ryan’s still traumatised, he can’t talk about the details of the crash,” adds Robertson.

At Robertson’s design offices in Melbourne’s south-east, though, the crash is now laid out in a sprawl of 3D models and charts. In one corner stands the Meuleman bike itself – newly dug out from the family garage where it was discarded after the crash. “I almost wish it was more mangled,” laughs Robertson. “But you can see how the front wheel is warped. Nothing about the official story adds up.”

The money trail

In 2023, the Meulemans sued law firm Slater and Gordon, alleging the historically Labor- and union-aligned firm failed to properly investigate the crash and instead pressured Ryan to take an inadequate compensation settlement of $80,000 from the Transport Accident Commission (as well as sign a non-disclosure agreement). Their case is finally going to trial in May, with the Meulemans having changed lawyers three times.

“We’re a humble family from the seaside with humble means, limited resources, and we were quite naive before people came in to guide us,” says Peter. “Basically, we’d gotten shafted.”

But the legal team who first prepared their case against Slater and Gordon say they still haven’t been paid and are chasing their costs through the courts.

“There was a case but counsel and I didn’t agree with the direction it was taking and those purportedly advising Ryan,” says George Defteros, a lawyer for high-profile gangland clients and who spent about two years on the suit.

Just as the case was nearing a critical moment last year, Defteros and his legal team say they were dumped for barrister James Catlin, a former adviser to Liberal premier Jeff Kennett. (Catlin also runs a self-described anti-corruption group with anti-lockdown commentator Emily Coltraine that had previously listed Bike Boy among its “campaigns”, but was no longer involved, Catlin said. Coltraine, who worked with Wenn on Ian Cook’s Sluggate campaign, says she isn’t involved with the official Bike Boy campaign.)

Now, in recent weeks, Greg Griffin, a South Australian sports agent turned lawyer known for his dust-ups with billionaires (and the AFL), has taken over the Meuleman case. Griffin is not interested in a settlement before trial, he says, noting mediation under previous legal teams failed.

“We want the trial,” Griffin says. “But this isn’t about [politics]. I’ve represented politicians on both sides. This is about trying to provide some justice for a young man who suffered quite serious injuries and has never been properly compensated.”

He says Ryan is challenging the costs claimed by Defteros, which he called “exorbitant”, but stressed that other lawyers had been paid in full. (Ryan says he’s happy with his new counsel.)

The money for litigation is drawn from the campaign’s public GoFundMe, where notable donors so far include rich lister Blair James (who donated $30,000), as well as Deeming, prominent philanthropist Neville Bertalli, and Julian Gerner, the restaurateur who previously challenged COVID lockdowns in the High Court.

A promotional banner used across from “The Bike Boy Scandal” campaign’s social media blitz.Credit: Facebook

‘Batman and Batman’

The campaign has amassed a vast army of helpers and promoters since an angry Peter Meuleman first went to the press in 2013. “Bike Boy Scandal” has its own social media following, logo and crash test dummy recreations.

Today Robertson and Wenn are the “odd couple” at the heart of it all, working almost every day for free. “Batman and Batman,” Robertson jokes. The pair even created a company: Bike Boy Scandal Pty Ltd.

When Wenn offered the Meulemans his help in 2022, Peter says he was reluctant “because I didn’t know what the big picture was”. Five years earlier, he’d told the press the matter was “all done and dusted”. But Wenn “won his trust” and “some really good folk decided to reignite it”.

Robertson, by all accounts, appeared a little later with a haul of new charts under his arm, having been inspired to do his own amateur detective work (using Google Maps and Photoshop) after watching an exhaustive press conference in which then-premier Andrews described the crash as Ryan’s bike “T-boning” their car.

“This is about justice for me, I’m not a member of the Liberal Party,” says Robertson. “I’m more of a libertarian, if anything.

“Brad’s Libs faction have always been great, but under [former leader John] Pesutto they had a big fight about it, and didn’t want to touch us publicly. Now we’ve gathered momentum, well, everyone loves a winner.”

While Wenn runs in political circles, his PR career hasn’t crossed into Liberal territory – instead involving work with whistleblowers from Hillsong and Crown, and previously for the left-aligned GetUp!.

But Wenn has managed other campaigns pro bono targeting the Andrews government, including the NotAboveTheLaw fight for prosecutions after the deadly hotel quarantine fiasco, a series of Orwellian anti-lockdown ads, and Ian Cook’s Slug Gate campaign alleging corruption. In the Slug Gate saga, Ian Cook eventually won his case that his catering business had been unfairly shut down by Victorian health officials following a deadly listeria outbreak, but did not prove a conspiracy. (Today, though, photos of a slug allegedly planted by health inspectors are still examined intensely by online sleuths, with more legal action slated and Cook launching his own failed bids to enter politics.)

“I come from a family of umpires, I like people to follow the rules,” says Wenn. “It’s not about hating Dan.”

Online sleuths scrutinise this photograph for clues as to whether the slug was planted in a commercial kitchen.

But some in the Bike Boy camp, such as the team’s dedicated social media guru, have run more explicit campaigns against Andrews, including a petition to have a planned statue of the former premier (whom he calls a “tyrant”) cancelled. A group of ex-police lending their expertise to Bike Boy Scandal also head a community advocacy group that previously pushed to recall Andrews, in collaboration with anti-lockdown activist Monica Smit (well-known for her clashes with police.) Both Wenn and Robertson have appeared as guests on the shows of other “COVID influencers” who helped found the freedom movement.

The most prominent is Avi Yemini, of the far-right Rebel News, who once shopped the Meuleman story around himself to journalists, claiming to represent the family. (“We did [work with him] early in the piece,” Peter says.) Yemini still frequently runs the story on his channels, including a recent podcast with Robertson calling for donations. (“I was a bit starstruck,” admits Robertson.) Yemini was contacted for comment.

Ryan himself says he doesn’t mind agitators such as Yemini and Smit using his story, as long “as they’re doing it with a positive outlook”. “I’m not trying to say it’s anything to do with Labor,” he adds. “I’m not a political person.”

Deeming says she didn’t look into who else was supporting the family, working with Wenn and Abercrombie to offer advice, rather than with the Meulemans directly. “I didn’t want to be a vulture.”

But Deeming adds: “I’m not going to be shamed out of supporting a just cause because someone that other people think might be unsuitable is too. [We] shouldn’t be quibbling like cowards about this.”

Wenn sees it this way: “When you do anything in politics, you can’t always pick your supporters. We talk to people because I’d rather people know the facts. Opinion is bullshit.”

Design engineer Colin Robertson laying out his alternative theory on the bike boy case.Credit: Paul Jeffers

Case files

Back at Bike Boy HQ, Robertson runs through these facts systematically, improvising with a pool cue instead of a laser pointer. At first glance, the case of the boy hit by the government car has all the makings of a great conspiracy theory. Police failed to breathalyse the Andrews (which officers were later admonished for), and it appears limited evidence was collected from the scene. Peter says he was stonewalled by police when he tried to find out details of the crash, and later IBAC refused to release details of its own investigation into the case.

So how do we know Daniel Andrews wasn’t driving, wonders Robertson. What if they were drunk? “Physics suggests the crash can’t have happened the way [police] say it did, at the low speed they say it did.”

Yet, some of the new evidence and witnesses the Bike Boy crew say they have unearthed appear to contradict each other, or rely on their own assumptions. They promise they are sitting on a trove of information – subpoenaed emails, files and phone records – that will “blow the lid off this cover-up”.

In new court documents filed by Griffin for the Meuleman case, obtained by The Age, it’s alleged that the attending police deliberately intercepted that emergency call within seconds of it coming in, to ensure they were first on the scene. Those police then wrote off the crash without driver fault – and without a proper investigation, the suit claims.

A sign at the Sorrento sailing club, near the 2013 crash, hits out at the infamous 2020 Aspen party, hosted by Abercrombie, which started COVID clusters across Melbourne.

Retired police officer Scott Hanley was on duty nearby that day in January 2013, when the triple zero call came through about the crash. He was ready to race there, but other police took the job instead.

Hanley says the rumour flying around the station back then was that the case involved someone high-profile and no one had been breathalysed. “But there wasn’t suggestion of interference or anything,” he says. “I just thought it was a stuff-up. Still, as stuff-ups go, it’s a massive one.”

But, since joining other retired cops in assisting on the Bike Boy campaign, he’s grown concerned about a possible cover-up.

Slater and Gordon, which denies failing to investigate or any wrongdoing, is yet to file its updated defence. Neither Victoria Police, Catherine Andrews or Daniel Andrews are named parties in the suit.

Victoria Police didn’t comment but its own internal standards review, which it refused to release publicly, also cleared the officers. (And the bushes near the bike path which Ryan told police had partially blocked his view of the road were hacked back for safety.)

Revising the Meuleman case ahead of trial, Griffin says he will be calling experts and witnesses to the stand, but Daniel and Catherine Andrews won’t be among them.

Of course, the team still has its proposed defamation case. Last month, their lawyers demanded the Andrews couple retract some of their public comments, after the couple gave a statement to The Age last year dismissing the case against Slater and Gordon as based on conspiracy theories.

Wenn and Robertson confirm that defamation suit will soon be filed. (“Our biggest problem now is figuring out who will play us in the Netflix series,” jokes Robertson.)

“I believe it will [be filed],” adds Peter. “Really, I’m not the angry, bitter father with an axe to grind. I’m not [a] Liberal. I’m just trying to get the best for my son. And these good Samaritans, regardless of what their agenda might be, they’re helping our family. That’s all that matters to me.”

On Sunday, that exclusive fundraiser to finance the defamation suit was kept quiet, but it still drew more than 100 guests, thanks to the Liberals’ old cash-raising king Abercrombie. Robertson took along his charts and replica cars especially.

Ryan, the young man at the centre of all this, wasn’t there.

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