‘Unhinged' motorbiker's 300km/h meltdown
Judge says he’s never seen anything like it as he sentences man on nearly 70 offences
One man committed nearly 70 dangerous driving offences over six weeks in what a judge has called the “most unusual” case he’s dealt with. A speed camera even caught footage of the man doing a wheelie as he rode past on his motorbike.
Michael Patrick Connell, 36, admitted to police he’d at one point reached a speed of about 300km/h on the bike, the vehicle used in the offending.
Connell blamed the crimes on his mental state at the time — he had just split from his partner of 17 years and became “unhinged”, Judge Stephen Harrop said in the Hutt Valley District Court yesterday.
“One would call it, colloquially, a meltdown,” defence lawyer Steve Gill said.
Connell’s doctor described it as “a destabilisation of his mental state”.
“He did this foolish, dangerous, arguably possibly fatal behaviour, instead of doing what he should have done, which was seek proper medical advice about how he was feeling at the time,” Gill said.
“How the defendant or anyone else on the road wasn’t killed is truly remarkable and probably good luck rather than good management.”
Connell travelled north to Rotorua to buy the high-performance, 1000cc sports bike with a top speed of more than 299km/h, Judge Harrop said.
“You admitted to police on the way back home you did briefly reach that speed near Taupo.”
Once at home in Lower Hutt, Connell altered the registration plate, changing two letters.
He appeared before Harrop yesterday on 31 charges, about six of which were representative and covered 47 incidents. The judge said it came to 72 incidences of offending, the “vast majority” of which were driving offences. The other charges involved driving without an appropriate licence, failing to comply with police, and altering the number plate.
Over a period from January 16 to February 26, Connell activated three fixed speed cameras 45 times, mostly around Wainuiomata.
Harrop said there were 31 occa- sions Connell exceeded the speed limit by 50km/h or more.
Once the speed camera clocked him going 174km/h and photographed him riding past with his front wheel in the air.
“You acknowledge that you have become unhinged. You were not deterred by the potential for significant harm or death,” Harrop said.
“You simply had what could only be described as an extreme reaction to the relationship break-up.
“One might understand a brief excursion on reckless behaviour in response to the incident, but to have something that was so planned and where
One would call it, colloquially, a meltdown. Steve Gill, Connell’s defence lawyer
prolonged is, in my experience, most unusual and concerning.
“Lots of people have relationship break-ups and most of the consequences are limited to their own immediate environment and don’t involve any risk to members of the public, but here, self-evidently, you placed an unknown number and undoubtedly large number of innocent members of the public at risk of death or serious injury without thinking of them, and all because you suffered a personal difficulty in your life.”
Harrop said it was the most unusual sentencing in his 10 years as a judge, and he had never seen anything like it.
Connell has since sold the bike and is now in a new relationship.
Harrop sentenced him to six months of community detention, 125 hours of community work, 12 months’ supervision, and disqualified him from driving for two years and nine months, as well as making an order that Connell was not to have an interest in a motor vehicle for 12 months.