A MAN accused of trying to kill a motorist involved in a road-rage incident with his mother has appeared in court.
Wahanui Ronaki, 25, of Hoppers Crossing, allegedly went into a frenzy when he attacked the motorist with a golf club and fishing knife, almost severing his ears.
Detective Leading Senior Constable Alan Hill told Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday that Ronaki’s mother, Kia, was driving out of Woodfield shopping centre in Werribee about 4.45pm on May 1 last year when she attempted to leave through the entrance and not the exit lane. As a result, she blocked the entrance for a motorist coming in to the shopping centre to buy dog food. Both drivers refused to reverse and there was a stand-off for 20 minutes, during which time Mrs Ronaki abused the other drive, the court heard.
Mrs Ronaki’s daughter, who was sitting in the back seat, called her brother, Wahanui, who lived only a short distance away.
Detective Hill said Wahanui soon arrived with Carlos Roberts, his sister’s de facto partner.
It was alleged Roberts started smashing the motorist’s front windscreen with a piece of wood while Ronaki used a golf club to smash the driver’s window.
The motorist panicked when the window shattered and he drove forward, trying to get away, hitting Ronaki’s mother, who was standing between the two cars. She fell over and hit her head on the asphalt. Detective Hill said Ronaki, who is charged with attempted murder and intentionally causing serious injury, screamed, “You ran over my mother. I’m going to kill you. You ran over my mum.”
Ronaki stabbed the motorist repeatedly in the face with the broken shaft of the golf club, the court was told.
Detective Hill said the intensity of the attack resulted in the victim’s ears being almost severed. He said Ronaki then produced a fishing knife and stabbed the victim in the forehead, narrowly missing his eye, and in the chest.
Magistrate Peter Reardon refused Ronaki’s application for bail and remanded him to appear for a committal hearing next month.
-The Age
