David Penberthy: Gepps Cross Rams don’t deserve negative reputation brought on by former player Brenton McEwan-Stephens’ drug case

A SOB-STORY from a criminal is not uncommon in our courts - but it is alarming when a judge restates it as fact and it damages a group’s reputation outside the courtroom.

Brenton McEwan-Stephens. Picture: Facebook.

• Footy club drug claims ‘must be put to the test’
• Brenton John McEwan-Stephens blames ‘drug culture’ of club

IT is not uncommon for people who have committed criminal acts to go to court armed with a sob-story aimed at lessening their guilt or absolving them of guilt. I am not sure how common it is for those sob-stories to be restated by judges as matters of fact.

That is what happened this week in the case of a drug dealer and his former football club, the Gepps Cross Rams, which suffered grave reputational damage as a result of this convicted criminal’s bid to beat the rap for the offence he chose to commit.

Save for the claims of someone who admitted to selling ecstasy, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that there is a drug problem within the Gepps Cross Football Club.

Thanks to the line of argument successfully put forward by Brenton McEwan-Stephens, the club has been portrayed as the northern suburbs’ answer to the West Coast Eagles, circa 2006.

Now, Brenton McEwan-Stephens is hardly the Mister Big of the drug world. He told police, and insisted before the court, that when he was busted at the HQ nightclub selling a small amount of ecstasy tablets in July of last year, it was the first time that he had done so.

When he was caught he had 15 pills in a plastic bag hidden in his dacks. He admitted his guilt immediately — not that he had much choice — but he also told the cops that he had had a further 35 pills on him, but had already sold them all.

During his court appearance, McEwan-Stephens’ lawyer spoke of the personal tragedies that had beset his client. Five years ago, when McEwan-Stephens was aged 18, his father committed suicide. Two days later his best mate did the same, and McEwan-Stephens found his body.

These are shocking tragedies, for sure, although I reckon many would counter that other people have suffered comparable hardships without turning to drug dealing as a form of therapy.

The central excuse-making tenet of McEwan-Stephens’ defence was that it was the apparent drug culture at his former football club that made him turn to a life of crime.

As far as I can tell, from having read the judgment in full, and having interviewed the club chairman, there were absolutely no inquiries made by police or throughout the course of the trial as to how this drug culture manifested itself.

McEwan-Stephens provided no names or details as to the identity of these supposed drug offenders. He shed no light on how this alleged drug culture was concealed or condoned at the club.

You would be within your rights to suspect that this is because there isn’t one.

That is certainly the strenuous and impassioned line of argument put by club chairman Gino Capogreco, a family man who has devoted his life to amateur footy. When I spoke to Mr Capogreco the other day, you could hear how insulted and disgusted he was by the assertions. And rightly so.

Here is a man who sees the power of football to give purpose and structure to young people’s lives, yet the club he loves being accused of doing the opposite of that, with no evidence to support the accusation.

And that’s the most galling thing about this case. In her judgment, District Court Judge Sophie David repeated the assertions put on behalf of McEwan-Stephens. They are included in her judgment as bland and uncontested statements of fact.

This is the key passage in unedited form:

“At 22, you joined Gepps Cross Football Club where there was a significant drug-taking culture. You no longer play football for this club and there is not the same drug culture at the Brahma Lodge Football Club.”

Case closed. Fully suspended sentence, and a very affordable $500 fine.

McEwan-Stephens walks free and the Gepps Cross Football Club will have to put up with raised eyebrows and snide murmurs about what its 800-odd registered players and members are really getting up to in the change rooms.

It is appalling that a football club can have its reputation so offensively tarnished, with no evidence to support the claim, other than the word of someone who’s admitted to skulking around a nightclub with a bag of pills hidden in his jocks.

In the absence of any evidence, the question rightly arises as to whether McEwan-Stephens has perjured himself. He at least owes the club an apology, even though that would obviously be tantamount to an admission of perjury.

The strangest thing about this man’s actions is that, having just gone through a court hearing where he effectively suggested the club ruined his life, he has since tried to leave the Brahma Lodge Club and return to the Gepps Cross Rams. Understandably, the Rams intend to tell him where he can ram his application.

As a droll punchline to this whole affair, I understand that the South Australia Amateur Football League recently sought a very modest $30,000 grant from the Attorney-General’s Department to run drug education and awareness programs at its suburban clubs. The request was knocked back.

You would think by way of an apology for the mud that’s been thrown at Gepps Cross, the AG might have a look at reversing that decision. Even though it sounds to me like the last club that really needs any drug education is the Gepps Cross Rams.