The tragic death of Melissa Hoskins, a former Australian pro cyclist, is one that shocked the cycling world back in December 2023 and it was caused by
Rohan Dennis' - former time-trial World Champion - wreckless driving right by their home in Adelaide on that day. Dennis has been given a suspended prison sentence as a result of this.
This has been confirmed today, after Dennis has plead guilty to 'creating a likelihood of harm' situation. Whilst it was not defined that the Australian was not held responsible for the death of his partner with intent, having created the situation of danger that ultimately led to her death saw him get arrested on the same day and ultimately suffer the appropriate consequences. He has been sentenced to a 16-month suspended prison sentence and his driver's license will be revoked for the period of five years.
Amanda Hoskins, mother of the deceased ex-cyclist, has said to Australian media: "Your temperament is your weakness and that needs to be pointed out. We miss our daughter terribly. She was special. We now have to come to terms with this and get on with our lives. Melissa would have liked that too."
He completely got off scott free. Celebrities always get a lot of leniency in term of punishment. Hunter Biden also got off. Jared Kushner's dad got pardoned. Bill Cosby walked free. A normal person would be languishing in jail.
I don't think having caused a person to die and having that on your conscience for the rest of your life is getting off scott free. Guilt is a dreadful thing to have on your conscience. It is there dragging you down untill you take your last breath. That hanging over you for the rest of your life is far worse than a jail sentence.
I’ve seen cases where people are more or less set free 6, 7, 8 times for cow-boy car rallies endangering pedestrians and only getting jailed after actually killing somebody. Sure thing is, prevention is not the priority, let’s kill somebody first so we have proof the perpetrators were dangers to others.
You don't even know what happened and you're somehow claiming the justice system got it wrong? On what grounds exactly are you making such claims? There was clear CCTV footage of the incident. It was a tragic accident caused by a heated argument (about kitchen cabinets believe it or not...) with Rohan wanting to leave the situation to cool off. There are two children to think about too - throwing the dad in jail for an accident is not the right way to handle this situation. Moreover, for the rest of his life, Rohan will know that his children will always have the thought in the back of their minds that "daddy killed mummy" - I think that is way worse than a few years in jail.
If that's true, then it is very unfortunate. At least, he tried to cool off. His cool off strategy turned out to be fatal.
Even Marine le pen got off lightly compared to ordinary folks and people still moan it was a political hit-job.