The man known as “Bike Boy” is fighting for bail after he allegedly attempted to steal a car with a woman and children inside while in his underwear and partially covered in blood.
Ryan Meuleman, who sued former premier Daniel Andrews after he was injured in a crash, faced an online court hearing on Wednesday from Marngoneet Correctional Centre in Lara, where he remains on remand.
The court heard that when the 28-year-old Noble Park man approached a parked car outside a Pakenham laundromat on John Street on May 3 he was wearing a jumper but was pantless, and his hands were bloodied.
Detective Senior Constable Sean McIntyre said on Wednesday that a white Kia Sportage had been left running with the boot open, with a woman in the passenger seat and her three-year-old twins in the back, while her husband collected washing at about 9.40pm earlier this year.
Meuleman allegedly sat in the driver’s seat, looked at the woman and used the gear stick to put the car into drive.
“She grabbed it [the gear stick], forcing it back into park. He then used both hands to overpower her and force the car back into drive once again,” the officer said.
“She began screaming to alert [her] husband. He ran towards the car and began punching him through window, opening [the] door and ripping the applicant out of the car and bringing him to the ground,” McIntyre said.
The man then performed a citizen’s arrest, holding Meuleman down until police arrived, the court heard. The incident was captured on CCTV.
When officers arrived at the scene, Meuleman allegedly provided a false name to Victoria Police, saying his name was “Crew Thompson”.
“It took [police] some time to identify who he was. During this time, he was wearing only a hoodie and his underwear. No pants,” McIntyre said.
“He wasn’t making much sense and rambling [and] couldn’t provide an explanation as to what had happened.”
Defence lawyer Tom Smedley urged the magistrate to release his client on bail to attend drug rehabilitation at The Cottage in Shepparton. He said Meuleman being hit by a car and seriously injured while riding his bike when he was 15 had been a turning point in his life, and saw him move from using cannabis to methamphetamines.
“It’s had a significant effect on his mental health,” Smedley said of the 2013 incident.
Smedley said in the aftermath of the crash, his client worked as a greens-keeping apprentice before becoming homeless at age 17 when his drug use spiralled.
Between 2016 and 2018 he was placed on a corrections order to perform community work after stealing a car while drunk and homeless.
Smedley said Meuleman was able to obtain private accommodation and abstained from drugs for about two years, working in roof tiling and labouring, before becoming homeless again.
A “short-lived” attempt at Harmony House rehabilitation failed before the latest alleged offending is said to have occurred.
Meuleman launched defamation proceedings against Daniel Andrews and his wife, Catherine, in November last year, after being badly injured in the collision with the Andrews family’s four-wheel-drive more than a decade ago.
Andrews, who was opposition leader at the time, was in the car along with the couple’s three children, while Catherine was in the driver’s seat.
Police cleared the pair of any wrongdoing.
The couple issued a joint statement more than a decade later in response to news articles about a report that alleged authorities engaged in a “cover-up to avoid implicating a political figure in a life-threatening crash”.
Meuleman alleged the statement was defamatory, claiming the pair had implied he lied about the circumstances of the collision and that he was using legal action to get money from false claims.
In 2024, Meuleman settled a separate case against his former lawyers, Slater & Gordon, over claims they failed to properly investigate the incident.
In opposing bail on Wednesday, Victoria Police said the victims remained in fear and were not known to Meuleman.
McIntyre told the court that at the time of the alleged carjacking in Pakenham, Meuleman was on bail for an alleged commercial burglary and theft in Bendigo.
The 28-year-old also has prior convictions for burglary, theft, car theft, drug-related matters, driving more than 45 km/h over the speed limit, dangerous driving, deception, a bail offence and cannabis possession.
Smedley said his client admitted he was the person arrested outside the Pakenham laundromat, but whether the car was moved far enough to constitute carjacking remained in issue.
“It does have a flavour of an attempt,” Smedley said.
The hearing was adjourned until August after magistrate Phillip Goldberg noted that patients at The Cottage were left unsupervised between 11.30pm and 6.45am.
Carjacking carries a maximum penalty of 15 years’ jail with a mandatory sentence of imprisonment.
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