A high-profile legal matter involving a 28-year-old man with a long-running dispute connected to former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has taken a new turn, after the man was arrested on alleged carjacking charges and is now fighting for release from custody.
Police have laid out their case against Ryan Meuleman, accusing him of attempting to steal a vehicle with a woman and her young twin children in the backseat outside a laundromat in Pakenham, a suburb of Melbourne, on the evening of May 3. According to law enforcement testimony during a Wednesday bail hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, the childrens’ father had stepped inside the laundromat around 9:40 p.m. to collect pre-washed laundry when Meuleman allegedly climbed into the car’s front driver’s seat and shifted the vehicle into drive.
The children’s mother, who was already seated in the car, physically struggled with Meuleman over the gearshift and screamed to alert her husband, Detective Senior Constable Sean McIntyre told the court. The father immediately rushed back to the vehicle, punched Meuleman through the open driver’s window, dragged him out of the car onto the laundromat’s front sidewalk, and held him down until officers arrived to place him under arrest, the detective added.
McIntyre told the court Meuleman appeared heavily impaired by drugs at the time of his arrest and gave police a false name, identifying himself as “Crew Thompson.” He was deemed unfit to participate in a police interview following his arrest. The court also heard Meuleman was already free on bail at the time of the alleged carjacking, awaiting trial on separate burglary and theft charges connected to a break-in at a commercial property.
This new arrest comes 12 years after a collision that left Meuleman seriously injured, and which has sparked years of legal conflict. In January 2013, when Meuleman was 15 years old, he was hit while cycling by a Ford Territory driven by Catherine Andrews, wife of Daniel Andrews, who was then leader of Victoria’s Labor opposition. Daniel Andrews and the couple’s three children were passengers in the vehicle at the time. A post-crash investigation by Victoria Police resulted in no charges being filed against anyone in the Andrews family.
Meuleman spent 11 days recovering in a hospital after the collision. He has long claimed the Andrews vehicle struck him as he cycled, while the Andrews family has consistently maintained that Meuleman crashed into their stationary car.
Meuleman’s defense attorney, Tom Smedley, referenced the 2013 collision during the bail hearing, arguing the crash left his client with long-term, unresolved trauma that has severely impacted his mental health. “Ryan identified this period as a significant turning point in his life,” Smedley told the court. “He identifies his substance use has been a longstanding coping mechanism connected to unresolved psychological distress and trauma.”
Smedley told the court Meuleman had already spent 87 days in pre-trial custody and was requesting bail so he could enroll in a 12-week inpatient rehabilitation program based in regional Victoria. Meuleman’s father, Peter, was present in the court gallery to support his son during the hearing.
Magistrate Phillip Goldberg adjourned the bail application to a future hearing date after raising concerns about the rehabilitation facility’s security protocols, noting the center does not offer 24-hour on-site monitoring of patients. Smedley requested additional time to arrange alternative security measures, including fitting Meuleman with an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet, to address the magistrate’s concerns. The bail application will resume on August 5.
The alleged carjacking is separate from an ongoing defamation lawsuit Meuleman filed against Daniel and Catherine Andrews last year. The defamation case stems from a 2013 injury compensation claim Meuleman filed over the collision. Earlier this year, Meuleman settled a separate lawsuit against his former legal team, Slater and Gordon, over claims the firm failed to properly represent him during negotiations for an $80,000 settlement with Victoria’s Transport Accident Commission. That case concluded in April 2025 with a confidential, out-of-court settlement that Meuleman’s current legal team described as “too good to refuse.”
During the public proceedings around that lawsuit, the Andrewses released a joint media statement in September 2024 that noted they were not involved in the case against Slater and Gordon and repeated their assertion they “did nothing wrong” in the 2013 collision. Meuleman claims the statement falsely implies he lied about the details of the 2013 crash to seek undeserved financial compensation. The Andrewses have denied the defamation claim and are defending the lawsuit, which is scheduled to return to court later this year.