Melissa Hoskins tragedy: Argument and fatal chase revealed as husband Rohan Dennis pleads guilty
New details of the fatal incident can be revealed after Rohan Dennis fronted court on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to a downgraded charge that still carries a lengthy prison sentence.
Former champion cyclist Rohan Dennis has admitted to driving with reckless indifference in an incident that ended in the death of his wife and fellow Olympian Melissa Hoskins, as it emerged that she was chasing his ute before she suffered catastrophic injuries.
New details of the fatal incident can be revealed after Dennis fronted Adelaide Magistrates Court on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to a downgraded charge that still carries a lengthy maximum period of imprisonment.
The incident unfolded outside the couple’s stone-front villa in the city’s affluent inner-north suburb of Medindie after a domestic argument on the evening of December 30 last year.
The Australian understands Hoskins initially jumped on the bonnet of the ute as Dennis slowly drove away from the home.
CCTV then captured her running beside the vehicle before she was struck and injured after reaching for a door handle.
She was taken to Royal Adelaide Hospital and died hours later, at the age of 32.
Prosecutors dropped a more serious charge of dangerous driving causing death and an aggravated charge of driving without due care, with no allegation of an intent to hurt Hoskins.
“Guilty,” Dennis said when the downgraded offence of creating likelihood of harm was read in court.
Almost a year after the incident, following an extensive review of CCTV and negotiations with Dennis’s lawyers, he admitted to driving without lawful excuse when Hoskins was on or in close proximity to the ute, knowing he would likely cause harm.
According to court documents, he was recklessly indifferent to whether that harm was caused. It is an aggravated offence because they were in a domestic relationship, and it carries a maximum seven-year jail term.
Dennis had faced up to 15 years’ jail under the previous charges.
Jane Abbey, appearing for Dennis, told the court her client was not being held responsible for the death of Hoskins, originally from Kalamunda in the Perth Hills.
“There was no intention of Mr Dennis to harm his wife and this charge does not charge him with responsibility for her death,” she said.
They were both former world champion cyclists raising two young children in a beautiful home in Adelaide, a couple who appeared to have it all before a moment of madness shattered everything.
The incident left the couple’s son and daughter without their mother and devastated two families and their wide circle of friends.
“It’s time to be a champion mum,” Hoskins told her parents when she retired from cycling, a sport she excelled in after being flagged as a potential future champion in a West Australian Institute of Sport talent identification program as a 15-year-old.
She went on to take out gold in the team pursuit at the 2015 world championships and represented Australia at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Games.
She retired in 2017, married Dennis in Margaret River the following year and had two children before her life was cut short.
Dennis won back-to-back individual time trial world championships in 2018 and 2019, won Olympic silver in the team pursuit at the London Games and took bronze in the road time trial at the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021.
Just months before his wife’s death, he was a nominee for Sports Dad of the Year, and when he retired from cycling in 2023, he thanked Hoskins for her crucial support.
In January, on bail, he entered a chapel at Fremantle Cemetery in Perth via a side entrance for Hoskins’s funeral and sat close to the front with his son and his daughter.
Hoskins was remembered by her father, Peter, as a much-loved daughter, sister, granddaughter, wife and mother at the service.
Aside from entering his plea, Dennis, wearing a sharp suit, was silent in the dock and did not address the media as he left court on continued bail. Now 34, he will be sentenced in the District Court. His next court appearance is scheduled for January 24.