WANGARATTA, Australia — Victoria Police have charged Brendan Nugent, 43, with three offences after independent MP Helen Haines was struck by a car outside her electorate office in Wangaratta on Monday, in what police will allege was a targeted attack, ABC News, The Guardian and CBC News reported.
Nugent, of nearby Tarrawingee, was charged with dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally causing serious injury and the federal offence of causing harm to a Commonwealth public official, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment, ABC News reported. He is due to appear in Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
The ABC confirmed that Haines, 65, has lost one leg and that doctors are fighting to save the other after she was pinned between two cars. She remained in a critical but stable condition at Melbourne’s Alfred hospital, The Guardian reported.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said witnesses described “the driver doing a U-turn to get into the car park and to ram Helen against a vehicle, then to reverse and do it a second time.” Police said one of their highway patrol officers responded only eight seconds after emergency services were called, and that a search warrant was executed at Nugent’s property on Tuesday morning.
Ricky Jefferies, whose barbershop is next door to Haines’s office, ran out to help detain the driver. “I had no choice but to take him out of the car because it was the right and safest thing to do,” he told reporters. Police confirmed a knife had been found. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese phoned Jefferies to thank him, saying, “It’s a reminder that at the worst of times, we see the best of the Australian character,” CBC News reported.
Nugent’s father, Rod Nugent, and his partner, Christine Cunningham, said in a statement that Haines had been their friend for more than 20 years. “What happened to her yesterday is devastating and unfathomable,” they said. “We will be assisting Victoria Police in any way we can.”
Police said the incident appears to have been isolated, with no other known threats. Burke said there were 1,067 reports of harassment or threats against high office holders in Australia in the last financial year, up from 951 the year before. “There is a direct line between the temperature of debate and things willing people will say, and then when people are willing to take action,” he said.
Sources: ABC News, The Guardian, CBC News
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