Ex-boxing world champion Ricky Allan Thornberry, 55, admits to drug-driving, days after trafficking sentence

An ex-boxing world champion, with a five-page criminal history, has admitted to drug-driving, giving a magistrate a similar explanation for his offending to one he gave on separate charges a week before.

Former world champion boxer from the Lockyer Valley, Ricky Thornberry. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail

A former boxing world champion has admitted to drug-driving, giving a magistrate a similar explanation for his offending to the one he gave to a judge last week on separate charges.

Ricky Allan Thornberry, 55, pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of methamphetamine in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

He was stopped by police on Ipswich Road at Annerley just before 8pm on Sunday, February 5. The initial roadside drug test was positive, leading to further analysis.

The court heard Thornberry has a five-page criminal history, but he had not been convicted of drug-driving for at least five years.

His 17-year boxing career ended when he lost to ex-NRL player Anthony Mundine on the Gold Coast in November 2002.

He finished with a record of 27 wins and five defeats, having won the super middleweight national, Commonwealth and world titles.

The court heard Thornberry started using methamphetamine in his 40s after his relationship separation. He has also struggled to adjust to civilian life after boxing.

Since his arrest and charge, he has attended drug counselling.

Thornberry was convicted, disqualified from holding a driver’s licence for one-month, and handed a $350 fine.

On Friday, Thornberry was in Brisbane Supreme Court where he pleaded guilty to drug supply and drug trafficking.

He trafficked the drug ice, but also occasionally supplied cannabis and party drug GHB for five months between June and November 2020.

Thornberry wrote a letter to the Supreme Court saying how he “turned to drugs as a way of coping when his career ended”, but he was now drug-free and was living with his brother.

He was sentenced to a wholly suspended three-year jail term and walked free from the Supreme Court last week.