Melbourne fitness community reeling as gym mum is charged with assaulting fellow mother on public holiday: Influencer reveals why she dropped her lawyers

A Christian fitness influencer and former ‘high-intensity’ gym owner has been accused of an Australia Day attack on a fellow mother. 

Melbourne mum Melinda Wade, 30, fronted the Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, charged with unlawful assault.

Wade is accused of attacking the complainant Angela Hammond near the CBD on Australia Day last year.

Police allege the assault occurred on January 26, 2025, but Wade was not charged until October.

Wade, who fronted court for the first time in February, was arrested and charged by police attached to the Melbourne East uniform division.

While the circumstances leading to Wade’s alleged assault on Hammond are unclear, it is understood that both women were celebrating the public holiday.

Hammond, also a mother, has mutual social media friends with Wade, though it is unknown whether they were friends before the incident.

Wade, of Berwick in Melbourne’s southeast, celebrated her birthday on the sunny Gold Coast less than two months after she was charged. 

The court heard that Wade, who often speaks about her Christian faith on Instagram, had lawyers working on her case, but that in an unexpected twist she was ‘now representing’ herself.

Her reason for doing so, it seems, was a breakdown in communication with her legal counsel.

‘If this does go further, [a lawyer] will be representing me, if need be, in the future,’ Wade told the court.

Magistrate Samantha Seoud asked Wade why her previous lawyers had not discussed the charges with police yet, and why nothing had been done to progress the matter since its first mention in February.

‘I’m not too sure, Your Honour,’ responded Wade, who was dressed in a striped blouse and wearing what appeared to be the same cross necklace seen in her social media posts. 

‘I didn’t hear anything back from him [the lawyer] which is why I’m representing myself… I wasn’t sure what his contact was with the police,’ she added.

Magistrate Seoud said the matter must progress.

‘That is going to need to occur,’ she said.

Magistrate Seoud ordered that Wade, now acting as her own legal representative, must discuss the matter with police before the next court date. 

Mother-of-four Wade, who has more than 7,500 followers on Instagram, describes herself online as a body transformation specialist who has ‘helped over 8,000 women achieve their goals’. 

She flaunts her flashy lifestyle online, including photos of a birthday trip to the Gold Coast, and previously ran the HIIT House Melbourne gym at Narre Warren in the city’s outer southeast.

HIIT refers to high-intensity interval training, a popular form of exercise about a decade ago involving alternating short bursts of intense exercise with brief recovery periods.

However, the HIIT House is now listed online as closed and an Instagram link to the once-thriving business is dead.

Wade specialised in showing women how to train while pregnant, and later how to reach optimum fitness after giving birth.

Less than a month after the alleged assault, Wade posted on Instagram that she was suffering from a medical condition that she claimed left her fatigued.

Wade also thanked her ‘best friend Jesus’.

‘Now, if you know me, you know my faith is the most important part of my life, and Jesus is my best friend,’ she wrote.

‘This is not and will never be my identity… my identity is in Christ! I AM a spiritual bulldog that will pray off all the enemy’s attacks against me…’

In her first post since being charged with assault, Wade also thanked her ‘amazing hubby for spoiling me’.

‘What a journey it has been until now, ups, downs, heartbreaks, dreams fulfilled, purpose, passion, breakthroughs & blessings. Thank you Jesus for EVERYTHING. Let the next chapter unfold.

‘Let’s focus… let’s not let our speed bumps become our destination of settlement, and keep soaring on, pressing through, and pressing forward into the FULLNESS of what God has prepared for our lives.’

Wade, who is charged on summons, will next face court on July 15.