Patience nabs killer
BRADLEY Azzopardi never saw it coming.
The failing eyesight that ruined his amateur boxing career betrayed him on Mother’s Day 2015 when he slammed his VT Holden Commodore into the back of a cyclist at Anakie.
An experienced bike rider, Gordon Ibbs, 77, was obeying all the road rules.
The visually impaired driver did not deliberately hit him, but neither did he take evasive action.
He knew his eyes were no good for driving.
Ten months earlier, his girlfriend suffered a serious back injury when he crashed into a car on the Geelong Ring Road.
“He didn’t see the car in front slow down at roadworks and slammed into the rear of it,” the court was told.
To make matters worse, his licence was suspended at the time.
He faced court several months later and had his licence cancelled for a year.
But here he was on the Geelong-Ballan Rd driving again, only six months later.
The unregistered maroon Commodore he’d purchased that week hit Mr Ibbs so hard the cyclist’s body ended up 39m from where it was struck.
Damage to the windscreen and roof spoke of the brutality of the impact.
But Azzopardi didn’t stop. He drove straight to Emerson Rd, Lovely Banks.
By the time he reached his destination, choppers were circling and his heart was racing.
He confided to his mate Jeremy Roberston about the crash and together they covered the car with tin to hide it from the prying eyes in the skies. Two days later, police found the car at Winchelsea’s Wurdiboluc Reserve.
It had been torched but not well enough to hide evidence of the crash and Azzopardi was quickly identified as the prime suspect.
But the detectives didn’t rush. Within weeks they were monitoring Azzopardi’s phone and movements.
They listened to him talk about how bad his eyesight was and heard admissions he was still driving despite the obvious dangers.
Having left school eight weeks into year 7, Azzopardi’s literacy was limited. But the police saw him repeatedly checking stories on the Geelong Advertiser website about the investigation into the killing of Mr Ibbs.
On October 30, 2015, he met with his ex-girlfriend Sarah Tutchell.
It was almost six months since Mr Ibbs was killed.
Police heard Tutchell say Robertson had spoken to her about the bloody Commodore that Azzopardi had driven to Lovely Banks on Mother’s Day and the effort they made to clean it.
But Azzopardi was seemingly unfazed. A member of the Bandidos outlaw motorcycle gang, he’d been keeping busy partying at nightclubs, getting into fights and dealing thousands of ecstasy pills.
Police heard him tell Tutchell he’d forgotten all about Mr Ibbs and the cops had nothing on him.
But his arrogance took a knock the very next day when the Geelong Advertiser reported that police were closing in on an unnamed suspect for the Ibbs crash, and believed Bandidos members were responsible for the car torched at Winchelsea.
Azzopardi clicked on that report at least four times that day, police say.
Three weeks later, Azzopardi showed up at the Geelong Magistrates’ Court to face assault charges.
With thick black sunglasses and the words ‘No comment’ tattooed down the side of his face, he didn’t see the police coming.
They arrested him for killing Mr Ibbs and led him — struggling, spitting, screaming and swearing — into custody.