How former Heartbreak High star Putu Winchester-Stanton spiralled into cocaine hell

Former teen actor Putu Winchester-Stanton was gripped by addiction when he was arrested in a police raid. But his time in maximum security prison might just be saving his life.

Putu Winchester Stanton was arrested in a cocaine raid in Byron Bay.

“When they put you in that cell … and those bars slam home … that’s when you know it’s for real. A whole life blown away in the blink of an eye. Nothing left but all the time in the world to think about it.”

The line, delivered so gracefully by Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemption, didn’t mean much to actor Putu Winchester-Stanton as he watched the classic prison movie for the thousandth time from the lounge room of his Mullumbimby home, near Byron Bay.

Little did he know, just 24 hours later that iconic line would prove a reality.

The following day the former soap star’s lounge room was raided, he was frogmarched by police out of his home in handcuffs and charged with drug offences.

Police executed four search warrants at homes in Byron Bay, Bangalow and Mullumbimby.

Winchester-Stanton says the long days in prison give you time to think.

Officers allegedly seized 340 grams of cocaine, $25,000 in cash and proceeds of crime.

Winchester-Stanton, 44, was among a group of seven charged with ten offences including supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.

Australia is currently in the grips of a cocaine crisis. While once considered the drug of the wealthy, statistics reveal cocaine usage has now spread much further, with Australia now the highest per capita user of the drug in the world.

Two and a half months later, Winchester-Stanton has opened up for the first time after those maximum security prison bars slammed shut. He tells the Herald Sun those words by Morgan Freeman, now play over and over in his head.

Time. What ifs. Regret. Remorse. But always looping back to time.

Time in jail is governed by routine. It’s what keeps you sane says Winchester-Stanton.

“The only way you feel human in here is getting some sort of routine going with training and study and training and study.

“Time slows down. They are long days. Long days.”

Waking up is usually marked by the sound and smell of your “celly”, or cellmate opening his bowels.

Standing in your assigned prison greens outside your cell, you wait for the 8.15 morning muster, or roll call, before the guards tell you to “break away.”

But well before then the thoughts have started looping back again. Time. What ifs. Regret. Remorse. How did I get here?

Addiction is a good place to start.

The days in prison are long and spent with training or study.

It was not until entering those four walls and seeking therapy through his lawyer that Winchester-Stanton realised just how big his cocaine addiction had become.

“My addiction started as a few knock-off drinks and having a line, which turned into having a big night, which turned into having a big weekend, which turned into doing it every night of my life.

“I was using a quarter, or an eight ball a week, sometimes more, that’s not a lot to a lot of people, but I guess it is to some.”

Seven grams of cocaine a week, amounting to a street value of around $2500, seems a lot by any account. But Winchester-Stanton says it had just become his normal.

“Cocaine used to be behind closed doors and not something so brazenly shown off. But now grabbing a bag is like having a cup of tea.”

“When something is accepted as the norm, it’s hard to wrap your head around the legal ramifications not also being so severe. But also how severe it is on people’s lives.”

After the day’s first muster comes training. Unlike TV jails there are no free weights and dumbbells to lift. Makeshift weights are made out of shopping bags full of water and fellow inmates from his “neighbourhood”, or prison unit, carry each other around to increase the load.

“I’ve lost all the coke bloat, that’s one thing I guess,” he says managing to crack a laugh through the prison phone.

Anything is used for a workout. Concrete slabs are used as benches to do sit-ups, the basketball court is used to run “suicides” that leave them gagging.

“For squats and legs I sit on Togo or Henry’s shoulders. Then Togo and Henry will sit on mine. But no one can pick up Aubrey, he is massive.

Winchester-Stanton says talking to his girlfriend helps keep him on track.

“There are a lot of good people in here. A lot of solid boys that I’m proud to call my mates.”

Born in Bali, Winchester-Stanton grew up around the who’s who of Sydney’s art and entertainment scene, along with his film and television screen-siren mother Arna-Maria Winchester and groundbreaking Balinese builder father Terrence Stanton.

He says his father was never the same following a bad motorcycle accident. The family split and moved to Bondi to get away from his father’s alcoholism and growing violent nature.

Winchester-Stanton says drugs were always present. But it was not until he became an 18-year-old soap star, playing Dennis ‘the menace’ Klinsmann on TV series Heartbreak High and later stints on Home And Away and Water Rats, that it became so readily available.

“That world can suck you in and kickstart you off,” Winchester-Stanton said.

“You’re earning like $2000 a week, which 25 years ago at the age of 18, that’s a lot. There’s an endless supply of money being a young performer.

“I had absolutely no desire to invest it, I wouldn’t have known how. I was just a party animal.

“It’s part of the fabric, being young, having money and all the trappings that come with it.

“To be honest it seems as though it’s quite glamorous from the way it’s portrayed on film and especially in Australia because of the price of it. It seemed like something that only rich and famous people do.

“So when you are young and impressionable and taken by the hand into the world of television and being a pseudo-celebrity, cocaine comes very much hand-in-hand with that.”

Midday muster rolls in at 12.15. Lunch is always in your cell and then comes an option of study, art, music, or training.

Putu Winchester appeared in Heartbreak High, Home and Away and Water Rats.

Winchester-Stanton says he does whatever is offered. Anything to take away from the thoughts looping again and again. Time. What ifs. Remorse. Regret.

“Things hit home for me as I got off the truck in handcuffs,” he says.

“There is a deep sense of hopelessness, a surreal light-headedness and an overwhelming sinking feeling at the same time.”

He writes letters, makes calls to his 18-year-old son and checks up on his cancer-riddled Rhodesian ridgeback Mondo Dingo.

He speaks to his girlfriend every day, which helps. He tries not to think how his situation might mean they can’t start the family they were planning.

“Every day I talk to my girlfriend Skyler and every day it feels like one step closer.”

The day’s end “lock-in” muster comes at 5.00pm. Dinner in your cell follows, kangaroo stew is his favourite dish. The thoughts soon start looping. Time. Regret. Remorse. What ifs.

“Life spiralled pretty quickly after mum and, of course, dad. The therapists have made me see that. I think in a way I’ve just been using coke to cover it all up. At least that’s what they are saying. I still am trying to work that part out.”

There is a fair bit to process. His actress mother was diagnosed with a brain tumour, dying of cancer a year later.

Winchester-Stanton’s estranged father decided to attend the funeral. Drunk, he started hurling abuse and obscenities at the wake and had to be escorted out.

Winchester-Stanton with Rhodesian ridgeback Mondo Dingo.

Son and father got into a heated argument, his father came at him physically and aggressively. When he defended himself, Winchester-Stanton’s life changed forever.

“As tears rolled down my cheek, I closed my eyes leaned forward and punched my father in the face. I had never punched anyone in the face before.

“As I looked back I saw his eyes close and time stand still for a brief moment. Then he fell. As fate would have it he fell backwards onto the only piece of concrete on our street. As his head hit the ground I heard a loud pop. His skull cracking. A sound I will never forget.”

His father was airlifted to hospital and later put into an induced coma from which he would never fully wake up.

“After a nine-month legal battle I was acquitted of any wrongdoing in my father’s death. I guess it was around then that my cocaine use started blossoming.

“I was drinking every day, doing coke every day. I drank until I simply couldn’t anymore.”

Night time is the hardest. It’s when Morgan Freeman’s words come to haunt him.

“I just keep thinking how did I get to this point, why did I let it get so on top of me? I have people I love and family I want to support.

“I’ve done my detox, well the physical part. The other stuff is going to take a while. But now I’m all about getting fit, healthy and strong and readjusting my trajectory in life.”

“I feel like a pawn in a crisis that is a lot bigger than me. But I have a desire to make things right, or get correct.”

Time. What ifs. Regret. Remorse.

Originally published as How former Heartbreak High star Putu Winchester-Stanton spiralled into cocaine hell