Woman accused of running over Chinese cyclist ‘hated Asians’

Joanne McCauley's son tells inquest his mother disliked Asians and she was jumpy and skittish on drugs when she confessed to running over Chinese cyclist

Gatton woman Joanne Marie McCauley has been named as the prime suspect in a hit-and-run that claimed the life of Chinese national Shui Ki Chan after she allegedly boasted about it to family and friends. Mr Chan, 25, was riding his pushbike home from work along the Warrego Highway near UQ Gatton on August 22, 2012, when he was struck and left for dead in a ditch alongside the road. Picture: Supplied

POLICE believe a Gatton woman purposely ran over a cyclist - Chinese national Shui Ki Chan - along the Warrego Hwy in 2012 and it has been revealed she allegedly hated people from Asia and referred to the group as "chongs".

Her son Peter Arrowsmith, who lives in Toowoomba, gave evidence at a coronial inquiry on Wednesday and said his mother disliked "Asians".

Mr Arrowsmith, a former Rockhampton and Warwick resident, told the inquest that his mother, Joanne Marie McCauley, told him and his brother that she had run over the cyclist.

But she later told him that she did not do it and had made up that story to try and scare someone.

"She just told us that she did do it and then a little bit after that she told us she didn't, (that) she made it up, I don't know what to believe," Mr Arrowsmith told the inquest.

He said his mother was on drugs and was emotional, jumpy and skittish when she told him she had hit the cyclist.

Mr Chan's body was found in a ditch along the Warrego Hwy near Gatton in August 2012. He died from being exposed to the elements overnight.

The inquest has heard Ms McCauley, who has previously lived in Rockhampton and Toowoomba, had admitted to several people she had hit Mr Chan.

Mr Arrowsmith was a teenager and living in Rockhampton around the time of the alleged hit and run.

On Wednesday the court heard what he had initially said to police about what he knew about the incident: "(The cyclist) had just left work and she swerved near him, too close to him, on the side of the road, he gave her the finger and she does not like chongs…"

At court on Wednesday Mr Arrowsmith was asked why he told police that his mother "hates chongs".

"She just dislikes them a little bit," he said in court. "I don't know why it is, it's just been her thing."

He admitted to the court that he did not get on well with his mother around the time he gave the statement to police.

The inquest will continue for the rest of the week and is likely to be adjourned to continue next month.

- ARM NEWSDESK

Originally published as Woman accused of running over Chinese cyclist ‘hated Asians’