\u201cYes it was an accident,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved Melissa and the last thing I ever wanted was to hurt her.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever in my life has any physical aggression crossed my mind in any disagreement with Melissa.\u201d<\/p>\n
He claimed media allegations suggested Dennis was a \u201chusband who abused his wife\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have ALWAYS been against any sort of abuse against women and especially the one who gave birth to my children,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The statement came after Dennis\u2019 controversial return to social media on March 18, which sparked backlash from human rights advocates.<\/p>\n
Rohan Dennis has issued his first public statement, on Instagram, after receiving a suspended sentence over the death of his wife. Photo \/ Rohan Dennis<\/p>\n
In the post, Dennis uploaded an image of a black Porsche on his Instagram account, which he described as an \u201cabsolute weapon\u201d.<\/p>\n
In Australian slang, the term \u201cweapon\u201d is often used to describe something impressive or highly skilled.<\/p>\n
The post sparked backlash, with Victims\u2019 Rights Commissioner Sarah Quick describing it as \u201cdeeply offensive and one that demonstrates a lack of empathy and insight\u201d.<\/p>\n
In his Instagram post, Dennis said the death was an accident and he had never meant to hurt his wife. Photo \/ Rohan Dennis<\/p>\n
\u201cWords matter and a vehicle should never be referred to as a weapon or regarded as a weapon, and the fact that Mr Dennis has chosen to do so is particularly shocking,\u201d she told the ABC.<\/p>\n
Hoskins died following an argument with Dennis about a kitchen renovation in December 2023.<\/p>\n
A court heard Dennis took off in the family Volkswagen Amarok and started to drive away from the Adelaide home.<\/p>\n
However, Hoskins ran outside to stop her husband from driving away, launching herself on the bonnet of the car as it drove behind the property at about 20km\/h.<\/p>\n
Dennis then pulled into Avenel Gardens Rd, where Hoskins dismounted the bonnet and grabbed the driver\u2019s-side door.<\/p>\n
She then tripped and was dragged underneath the car, suffering critical injuries.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old later died at Royal Adelaide Hospital.<\/p>\n
Melissa Hoskins was an Olympic cyclist alongside her husband. Photo \/ Instagram<\/p>\n
In court, Dennis was told he \u201cdisregarded his wife\u2019s safety\u201d but was not responsible for Hoskins\u2019 death.<\/p>\n
He was sentenced to one year and four months behind bars but had his sentence suspended.<\/p>\n
Dennis was instead placed on a two-year good behaviour bond.<\/p>\n
His driver\u2019s licence was also suspended for five years.<\/p>\n
Dennis and Hoskins were married in 2018 and had two children together.<\/p>\n
The former cyclist represented Australia in the 2012 London Olympics, where he took home a silver medal in the team pursuit.<\/p>\n
He also won consecutive world titles at the 2010 and 2011 UCI Track Cycling World Championships.<\/p>\n
His late wife was also an accomplished cyclist, who competed in the 2012 London Olympics, representing Australia in the track cycling team pursuit team, who placed fourth.<\/p>\n
She later competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics before retiring in 2017.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYes it was an accident,\u201d he said. \u201cI loved Melissa and the last thing I ever wanted was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1081,74,38501,23676,634,192768,1888,18087,111,139,69,46449,25292,1523,3109,49478,110270,5763,11165,213,9343,18834,1842,143302],"class_list":{"0":"post-367568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-accident","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-breaks","11":"tag-cyclist","12":"tag-death","13":"tag-dennis","14":"tag-first","15":"tag-issued","16":"tag-new-zealand","17":"tag-newzealand","18":"tag-nz","19":"tag-olympian","20":"tag-olympic","21":"tag-over","22":"tag-public","23":"tag-receiving","24":"tag-rohan","25":"tag-sentence","26":"tag-silence","27":"tag-sports","28":"tag-statement","29":"tag-suspended","30":"tag-wife","31":"tag-wifes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}