A successful real estate agent was arrested and prosecuted after reportedly stabbing a close family friend in the chest in front of her multimillion-dollar house.
Tuesday at Waverley Local Court, 46-year-old Matthew Brian Ramsay was refused bail after allegedly stabbing Helen Coulston with a knife as she opened the front door of her cliffside house in Dover Heights, in Sydney’s east, at 12:15 p.m. on Monday.
Walt, the husband of Ms. Coulston, told the Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday that Mr. Ramsay was the best man at their wedding and the godfather of their children.
He reportedly left the scene in a white Audi A5, but surveillance film captured the moment police apprehended him at a set of traffic lights along Bondi Beach’s Campbell Parade.
‘Get down on the ground,’ an officer yelled.
Ramsay slowly descended to the ground before being pushed into the road by a police officer.
An apprehended violence order was issued on Mrs. Coulston’s behalf after he was accused with causing grievous bodily injury with the intent to kill.
On October 19, the suspected knifeman will reappear in court.
Ramsay formerly worked in partner projects for a commercial real estate business and is close with the alleged victim and her husband, who also works in real estate.
He had more than 20 years of expertise in the real estate market and, according to an article from his former company, Ray White, “played a vital part in brokering some of Australia’s most high-profile transactions.”
He was responsible for the selling of the Pyrmont building of Channel 7 for $180 million and the Willoughby building of Channel 9 for $147.5 million.
The 46-year-old was once the director of CBRE Residential Development Sites and led a team that generated around $1 billion in annual sales.
During his lunch break, 37-year-old builder Peter Haramis heard Ms. Coulston crying for assistance and ran to her rescue.
Ramsay was supposedly standing over Ms. Coulston when Mr. Haramis approached them at the top of the steps; he remembers the man’s lifeless, stone-cold stare.
‘She was just screaming: ‘Help me! Help! He’s gonna kill me!’ he told NCA NewsWire.
‘He sort of, he looked at me and he froze… so I thought to myself, this is it, I think I have to fight him here.
Despite her injuries, a brave Ms Coulston managed to grab the knife and threw it onto the footpath before rushing back inside and locked the door, Mr Haramis said.
‘I picked up the knife … he started walking towards me,’ Mr Haramis recalled.
‘He was just walking towards me saying: ‘Give me the knife.’
‘I said: ‘No, you’re not getting it.’
‘Then the guy just calmly turns around and starts walking up the hill to his car.’
The tense confrontation ended when the suspected attacker dashed into a white Audi and raced away.
Mr. Haramis phoned the police and provided them with the vehicle’s registration information.
Moments afterwards, heavily-armed police stopped the luxury automobile on Campbell Parade near Bondi Beach and detained and charged Ramsay.
Mr. Haramis and his construction crew remained with the lady and administered help until the arrival of the ambulance personnel.
Mr. Haramis’s employer, Johnny Spili, told the Daily Mail Australia on Monday that he could not be prouder of his employee, who was working on a home two doors down at the time of the assault.
‘I am very proud of Peter’s conduct and how he intervened. I am very happy he contained himself, stood his ground protected the lady and then he kept his cool, it could have turned out so much worse,’ Mr Spili said.
Mr. Spili said that Peter had contacted him many times this afternoon following the incident and described himself as a “tough kid” despite being shaken.
Mr. Haramis informed him that the woman was able to seize the knife from the attacker and threw it to Peter, who then picked it up.
According to Mr Spili, Peter informed him that he “stood his ground ready to go and told the attacker to come and get it.”
‘I think he is doing well, he is just pretty shooken [shaken] up and is just taking some time to relax and process what happened,’ Mr Spili said.
‘He has called me a few times and he is in shock but he will be fine, he is a tough kid.’
In addition to the helicopter ambulance, three ambulances were deployed to the location.
Ms. Coulston was evaluated at the neighbouring Dudley Page Reserve before being transported to the hospital.
The police stopped a part of Weonga Road and set up a crime scene.
It is believed that the woman’s husband arrived shortly afterwards.
The 46-year-old male has been detained by police, and his white Audi has been impounded and will undergo a forensic examination.
Inspector Giles Buchanan of the NSW Ambulance Service said that paramedics were able to stabilise the woman, who was then transported to St Vincent’s Hospital in a critical but stable condition.
‘This was a very traumatic scene to arrive at with a significant, life threatening stab wound,’ Mr Buchanan said.
‘Paramedics administered IV fluids, stemmed the bleeding and provided pain relief to stabilise the patient.
‘Stabbing wounds are generally confronting incidents and this patient has suffered a very serious injury.’