Brendan Nugent named as man in custody after alleged attack on Helen Haines

Brendan Nugent, 43, has been named as the man in custody after independent Australian MP Helen Haines was critically injured outside her electorate office in Wangaratta, Victoria, on Monday. ABC News and Guardian Australia independently identified Nugent following his arrest. Police are still investigating what happened and why.

The identification is a new development since NewsJaws’ earlier report on the attack and Haines’s condition. ABC News reported that Nugent remained in custody on Tuesday morning and was being questioned by detectives after his arrest the previous afternoon. Guardian Australia described him as a resident of nearby Tarrawingee.

Police investigate the Wangaratta incident

ABC News reported that Haines, 65, suffered critical lower-body injuries after she was pinned between two cars. She was flown to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and underwent surgery overnight. Haines has represented the federal electorate of Indi as an independent since 2019; the incident took place outside her local office.

Nugent’s earlier forest campaign work

Both outlets reported that Nugent was previously involved with Save our Strathbogie Forest, a group campaigning against logging in the region. Guardian Australia said he became inactive around 2019–20. Group chair Bertram Lobert told ABC News he had not heard from Nugent since before the COVID-19 pandemic, after roughly two years of active membership.

Lobert told ABC News that Nugent had driven from Tarrawingee to attend the group’s meetings and had been interested in its environmental work. Guardian Australia reported that Nugent praised Haines’s position on climate change in an October 2019 post. His former involvement with the group and that earlier comment do not explain why Monday’s incident occurred; police have yet to establish that publicly.