Tycoon’s son in $1m bail offer following deadly crash
Obstetrician Rhys Bellinge, from one of Perth’s richest families, is accused of killing a young woman when he allegedly sped his Jaguar through one of Perth’s wealthiest suburbs.
The obstetrician son from one of Perth’s richest families – accused of killing a young woman when he allegedly sped his Jaguar through one of Perth’s wealthiest suburbs – has offered up $1m to secure bail.
Rhys Bellinge appeared in Perth Magistrates Court via audio link from the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital bed to which he has been handcuffed since Saturday night, shortly after his car slammed into an Uber vehicle carrying 24-year-old student Elizabeth Pearce. Ms Pearce died as a result of her injuries and the driver of the Uber is in intensive care with two broken legs and a broken arm.
Dr Bellinge is a high-profile obstetrician and the son Bruce Bellinge, who himself is a prominent doctor who owns Concept Fertility.
Bruce Bellinge is married to Megan Wynne, providing her with early-stage funding to build and expand her disability employment group, APM Human Services International, that would float on the Australian Securities Exchange and make the couple billionaires.
The company was acquired by private equity shortly after it suffered a collapse in value last year. At its peak the couple were worth more than $1bn.
Dr Bellinge’s lawyer, Tony Hager, said Bruce Bellinge had been by his son’s side in hospital since the incident.
Rhys Bellinge was allegedly driving at speeds of 130km/h and had a blood-alcohol content of almost four times the legal limit when he drove his Jaguar from his wife’s Nedlands home towards his parents’ palatial home on Jutland Parade through the suburb of Dalkeith on Saturday night. He has been charged with manslaughter and dangerous driving.
Dashcam footage from the vehicle captured Dr Bellinge screaming and shouting about his estranged wife in the moments leading up to the accident. His lawyer, Mr Hager, on Tuesday told the court the language used by his client about his wife was “unflattering” and “disgraceful”.
Mr Hager said Dr Bellinge and his family were willing to put up a $1m surety to secure bail. He proposed the bail be conditional on Dr Bellinge being confined to his father’s home and abstaining from alcohol.
He denied his client was a flight risk, citing his lack of prior convictions, the fact his two daughters go to school in Perth, and the injuries he suffered in the accident.
He said Dr Bellinge had suffered a fracture to his L3 vertebrae, was required to wear a spinal brace, and was currently unable to stand unassisted, roll over or dress himself.
Police prosecutors have opposed bail, telling the court Dr Bellinge had attempted to minimise his actions in the immediate aftermath of the crash.
Body-worn camera footage from the incident allegedly shows Dr Bellinge saying the other vehicle had “cleaned me up”.
About 40 minutes after the crash, Dr Bellinge was filmed denying responsibility for the incident.
The prosecutor said the footage captured Dr Bellinge saying, “wait a minute, wait a minute, they came out of nowhere. Why the f..k am I the bad guy here, I only had two beers”, and describing his driving as “routine”.
The prosecutor said the crash had occurred as a result of Dr Bellinge “not being able to control his behaviour”.
She said police had also had identified additional dashcam footage from the days leading up to the incident, in which Dr Bellinge was driving erratically and engaging in “numerous angry rants” about his wife.
That footage, the court heard, showed multiple incidents of erratic driving including an incident in which Dr Bellinge drove through the same suburban area at up to 108km/h, or more than twice the local speed limit, and another in which he drove at speed without wearing a seatbelt.
Magistrate Clare Cullen said she was concerned about the “disproportionate emotional upset” Dr Bellinge had displayed since the breakdown of his marriage.
“I remain concerned about what is going on in the background,” she said.
“Separations happen every day, this behaviour does not.”
Ms Cullen will hand down her decision on Dr Bellinge’s bail application on Wednesday morning.
Mr Hager told the court Dr Bellinge’s marriage had broken down on January 11, and the obstetrician left the family home at that time. The pair had undergone marriage counselling between February 3 and 14.
He said his client had started seeing a psychologist and had been on prescribed medication since the marriage breakdown.
“There is this period of disintegration of what was a prosocial life of my client,” Mr Hager said.
“He clearly has reacted in an awful way to the breakdown of his marriage.”
The prosecutor said police had been attempting to talk to Dr Bellinge’s wife but she had so far not wanted to speak to police.
Ms Pearce was the daughter of a geophysicist and nurse who was just metres from her family home when the car she was in was struck.
Her family issued a statement describing their heartbreak over Ms Pearce’s death.
“Our world is shattered. Our beautiful, bright girl brought sunshine to our lives and we are now in darkness,” they said.
The website of Dr Bellinge’s obstetrics business says “due to unforeseen circumstances, Dr Bellinge will be unavailable for the time being”.
The riverside Jutland Pde is arguably one of the wealthiest addresses in Australia, and is home to some of the richest people not just in Australia but also the world, and at least one royal family.
Billionaire Kerry Stokes lives there, while Indonesian tycoon Michael Bambang Hartono chose the street as the location for a sprawling holiday compound.
The Sultan of Johor, Ibrahim Ismail, bought a riverfront block on Jutland Pde in 2015.
But the address now owned by Dr Bellinge’s father has had a mixed history. It was built by Peter Beckwith, a key lieutenant of infamous Perth tycoon Alan Bond, who died of a brain tumour soon after he moved in.
The subsequent owners, shopping centre developer and former Perth Wildcats owner Jack Bendat and wife Eleanor, were targeted by a professional gang of burglars not long after they began calling it home. The gang held a gun to Ms Bendat and demanded the couple open the home’s strongroom, with Mr Bendat telling the thieves he did not yet have the key to the room.
Ms Wynne and Bruce Bellinge bought the home in 2016 for $13.7m.
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