Dashcam footage captures doctor’s rant before fatal Dalkeith crash
Updated ,first published
He was a doctor who founded a successful clinic helping pregnant women give birth; He was a promising college student with his whole life ahead of him.
And the moment of confrontation between the sliding doors that resulted in the death of Elizabeth Pearce and the imprisonment of Rhys Henry Stone Bellinge was broadcast to a gallery of shocked onlookers in the WA Supreme Court during his sentencing on Tuesday.
Footage from his Jaguar’s dashcam shows the 46-year-old driving at high speed – sometimes more than 130km per hour – on minor roads, traffic lights and roundabouts in Perth’s affluent western suburbs before crashing into an Uber taking Pearce to his home in Dalkeith.
The court was told Bellinge was separating from his wife, who was staying at the family home with her children at the time of the incident and had temporarily moved in with her father, Bruce Bellinge.
“F— you, f— you, you f—, this is my house, this is my house,” Bellinge can be heard shouting in footage before the crash.
“My house, this is my house you bitch… you’re nothing to me. You mean nothing to me.”
Bellinge then speeds away and is heard on the dashcam yelling, “Yeah, you better hurry up—face…go over—head. Yeah, then what? You pussy fuck, fuck, fuck, that bitch” before the vehicle crashes.
Bellinge pleaded guilty, with footage played to a packed courtroom in Perth, as he was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison on Tuesday for dangerous driving, careless driving, dangerous driving causing bodily harm and manslaughter.
Bellinge sat on the dock and cried as the footage was played.
Uber driver Mohammed Usman was also present and left the room as the recording was broadcast. Members of Pearce’s family did the same.
The obstetrician had gone to watch football with friends that day and drank beer, wine and spirits, but claimed he was unsure of the amounts he consumed.
Bellinge then felt obliged to visit his children and drove to the family’s home, parked in the driveway and then changed his mind and sped away, shouting angrily at other drivers and his wife.
“He couldn’t understand why he was leaving,” Bellinge’s lawyer told the court on Tuesday.
“He had suicidal thoughts but always held back because of his children.”
The court was told Bellinge tried to repair the relationship, sought counselling, and was later diagnosed with depression and prescribed both antidepressants and diazepam to help her sleep.
But he claims the drug has a negative effect, causing “anxiety, agitation, insomnia, anger, muscle spasms, and the like.”
The incident that led to Bellinge crashing into Usman and Pearce at 116kph at Birdwood Parade in Dalkeith at around 10pm on February 15, 2025, was “a series of events made worse by drugs and of course drunkenness”, the court was told.
The speed limit on the street was 50 km/h. A few seconds before the accident, Bellinge was traveling at 138 km/h.
Pearce died almost instantly.
Usman suffered serious injuries and spent two months in hospital; He endured surgeries that left him with two broken legs and an arm.
He used a cane to move in court Tuesday.
As the dashcam continues to record after the collision, Bellinge can be heard saying, “What nonsense… I’m so sorry… I’m so sorry to everyone.”
As passersby come to help, Bellinge can be heard getting out of the car and moaning.
“I’m so sorry, everyone,” Bellinge repeats.
An empty rum bottle was found in his car and his blood alcohol level was determined at the scene to be 0.183; this was almost four times the legal limit.
The court heard Bellinge told police from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for spinal cord injuries, that he was not as angry as he said he was.
“I started driving away, away from my family. I felt so bad. My emotions were out of control, but I don’t think I was angry per se. But I was unhappy,” he said.
He claimed he remembered a car “coming in front of me” and tried to go around it. However, Usman’s Honda Jazz was virtually stationary when Bellinge’s Jaguar crashed into it. The doctor hit the curb and lost control, the court heard.
The court heard Bellinge could not remember how much alcohol he had consumed and “thought it would wear off after a while”.
She said she wanted to go see her children, but stood in the driveway and thought, “You’re being stupid. Go home.”
Bellinge told police he was driving with tears in his eyes, obscuring his vision.
The court heard Bellinge grew up peacefully in Perth Hill, had a good childhood in Perth Hill and then received a private secondary education at Guildford Grammar.
But the court was told she was struggling with her parents’ divorce, which left her unable to cope with her own marital problems.
He spent his early adulthood struggling to find his way; It started with a court hearing and he abandoned multiple college degrees and began a career as a bricklayer, eventually graduating as a doctor as a mature student.
He soon established his own clinic and was in great demand and respected by his colleagues for his skill and competence.
But around the time his marriage began to collapse, they noticed a change in him.
The court was told his two young children had developmental delays, which contributed to stress in the couple’s relationship, but “nothing prepared him for hearing that he wanted to separate from his wife”.
Bellinge was sentenced to 10.5 years in prison but will be eligible for parole after 8.5 years, with the judge describing his actions on the night as “justified” and stating that nothing could alleviate the immense pain of Pearce’s family and friends.
