The Olympic cyclist Rohan Dennis, who 10 months ago was given a 17-month suspended sentence after his car fatally struck his wife, has returned to social media with a post describing a Porsche as an \u201cabsolute weapon\u201d.<\/p>\n
Melissa Hoskins, an acclaimed world and Olympic cyclist, died when she was struck by a car driven by her husband near their home at Medindie, in Adelaide\u2019s inner north, in December 2023.<\/p>\n
Dennis pleaded guilty<\/a> to committing an aggravated act likely to cause harm, but was not held criminally responsible<\/a> for his wife\u2019s death.<\/p>\n He had not posted on social media since shortly before the crash, but returned on Tuesday with a photo of a bike frame. On Wednesday evening, Dennis shared a photo of a black Porsche with the caption: \u201cWhat an absolute weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n The Instagram post and story \u2013 which was accompanied by the CID and Taylr Renee song Fancy $hit \u2013 drew some criticism on social media.<\/p>\n Rohan Dennis\u2019s Instagram post of a Porsche. Photograph: Instagram<\/p>\n South Australia\u2019s commissioner for victims\u2019 rights, Sarah Quick, called the post \u201cdeeply offensive\u201d and said it demonstrated \u201ca clear lack of insight into the real and lasting impact of the harm he has caused\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt also reflects a profound lack of respect for Melissa and her family,\u201d Quick said in a statement.<\/p>\n During his sentencing last May, Dennis agreed to a $100, two-year good behaviour bond. His driver\u2019s licence was suspended for five years.<\/p>\n On Thursday morning, Dennis posted an image of his two children riding their bikes. He accompanied the photo with the caption: \u201cTwo absolute weapons\u201d and a love heart emoji.<\/p>\n Dennis had also shared a screenshot of the transcribed voice message and phone number of a journalist from the Adelaide Advertiser who had approached him for comment about his social media with the words: \u201cDidn\u2019t take these rats long.\u201d<\/p>\n He posted a video of reporters outside his Adelaide home, too.<\/p>\n Later on Thursday, he appeared to have deleted his entire Instagram account.<\/p>\n Judge Ian Press told Dennis in May last year: \u201cI accept you have a sense of responsibility for all that occurred. I accept you have anguished over what could have been different if you had acted in some other way.\u201d<\/p>\n It was important to acknowledge Dennis was not charged with causing the death of his wife, Press said. Hoskins had jumped on to the bonnet of his car (not the Porsche).<\/p>\n Driving at any speed when a person was on the bonnet was \u201can inherently risky and dangerous act\u201d, the judge said.<\/p>\n After Hoskins got off the bonnet, she opened the door, which Dennis closed without stopping, the court heard.<\/p>\n \u201cUnbeknownst to you, your wife held on to the car as you accelerated down the street. It was then that she fell and lost her life,\u201d Press said.<\/p>\n He noted that Dennis\u2019s \u201cstoic presentation does not necessarily mean you do not feel a sense of guilt for all that happened\u201d.<\/p>\n The Australian team of Annette Edmondson, Ashlee Ankudinoff, Amy Cure and Melissa Hoskins (right) after winning the team pursuit at the 2015 world championships. Photograph: Alex Livesey\/Getty Images<\/p>\n During his competitive career, Dennis won two world titles in the road time trial, as well as silver in the team pursuit at the 2012 Olympics and bronze in the road time trial at the Tokyo Olympics.<\/p>\n Hoskins competed at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics on the track in the team pursuit and was in the squad that won the 2015 world title.<\/p>\n Dennis was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Olympic cyclist Rohan Dennis, who 10 months ago was given a 17-month suspended sentence after his car…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-550543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}