Australian Olympic cyclist Rohan Dennis, who authorities say was driving a vehicle that fatally struck his wife, fellow Olympic cyclist Melissa Hoskins, will avoid prison for the time being. After pleading guilty to committing an aggravated act likely to cause harm, which carried a maximum sentence of seven years, Dennis received a 17-month suspended sentence on Wednesday. The 34-year-old will only serve time in jail if he violates the conditions of a two-year good-behavior bond, the New York Times reports. He was also banned from driving for five years.
Dennis and Hoskins had argued one night in December 2023, prompting Dennis to leave the couple's Adelaide home, according to South Australia District Court Judge Ian Press. The judge said that Dennis got into a vehicle and Hoskins laid on the hood in an attempt to stop him from driving away, as captured on CCTV cameras. Dennis drove slowly for about 250 feet while Hoskins remained on the hood, the judge said. She then got off, began walking next to the vehicle, and opened a car door while the vehicle was still in motion, Press said. He added that Dennis shut the door, then accelerated, not realizing Hoskins was still holding on.
Press said Dennis wasn't charged with causing 32-year-old Hoskins' death, per ABC Australia. Rather, the charge was based on his driving with Hoskins on the hood and his accelerating while she was close to the vehicle. Those actions "did create a risk of her being harmed," Press said to Dennis in court, per the Times. "You knew that, but continued to drive anyway." Hoskins' parents didn't push for incarceration, noting jail time for Dennis would have a negative effect on the couple's two young children, of whom Dennis is now the sole carer. "Their health and well-being is more important than a period of incarceration," father Peter Hoskins tells ABC. (More Australia stories.)
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