Bulldog Gym operator Stuart McKinnon sentenced to 11 years for ecstasy supply
Former world champion kickboxer and gym operator Stuart McKinnon has been sentenced to 11 years jail for negotiating and selling 20,000 MDMA tablets to undercover police. He told the court his actions arose from his own 28-gram-a-week cocaine habit.
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The founder and operator of a Castle Hill gym - who is also a world-class kickboxer - has been sentenced to at least seven and a half years in prison after supplying 20,000 MDMA tablets to undercover police.
Stuart McKinnon, 45, operated Bulldog Gym Muay Thai Castle Hill up until he was arrested in May last year following a police investigation.
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McKinnon, and co-accused Bisesh Giri, 30, were involved in negotiating and selling 20,000 MDMA tablets to undercover police in 2017, who used the alias “Crystal” in buying the tablets on two separate occasions.
McKinnon, using the name “Gohard101”, arranged big money transactions for MDMA using encrypted chat on his Blackberry and told the court the whole ordeal arose from his own 28-gram-a-week cocaine habit.
In early 2017, McKinnon negotiated the sale of 10,000 MDMA pills for $50,000, a statement of police facts revealed with the first handover going down without incident.
Giri handed the pills to Crystal on the corner of Liverpool and Riley streets in Darlinghurst on March 3.
Later that day, Crystal - an undercover informant - handed McKinnon $50,000 cash in Castle Hill in full view of police surveillance.
So, when Giri wandered along Liverpool St with another 10,000-pill delivery in his backpack on March 30, Strike Force Walkom swooped on the Nepalese migrant, who the court heard had turned drug-runner to feed his own addiction.
In the days following Giri’s arrest, McKinnon told Crystal he was taking a 10-day trip to Thailand.
Almost a year later, on May 1, 2018, police came knocking at McKinnon’s north-west Sydney home with a warrant.
They found $237,700 cash stuffed under the bottom draw in his walk-in wardrobe and in his car. Four vials of Sparta brand testosterone were also seized.
He was arrested and charged with two counts of supplying large commercial quantities of MDMA, possess prohibited drug and dealing with proceeds of crime.
McKinnon told the court today he was holding the money under duress from a drug dealer, to whom he had racked up a $80,000 cocaine debt.
A crippling back injury had forced him out of competitive kickboxing. The court heard he had won a world championship at the height of his career and he gave evidence the sport “definitely gave me drive and self-worth and made things feel better”.
By 2016 the court heard McKinnon was using about an ounce a week – just over 28 grams – of cocaine, gradually adding to his debt.
He said the dealer effectively said to him: “we’re going to have to work this out or things are going to get bad for me and my family”.
He told the court he had reached an agreement with the dealer and their associates. They would gradually shave down his debt if he safe-housed large sums of money for them.
He said the same group issued him the “Gohard101” BlackBerry.
Judge Sean Grant dismissed a psychological report which stated the offending was a result of McKinnon’s cocaine addiction and Mr Grant said he had “grave suspicions” about the authenticity of the defence saying “his motivation was simply financial”.
McKinnon was sentenced to 11 years jail with a non-parole period of 7 years and six months. He will be eligible for parole on November 1, 2025.
McKinnon’s wife broke into tears in the public gallery as the sentence was read out.
Giri was sentenced to nine years imprisonment with a non-parole of six years.
Strike Force Walkom was set up to investigate the Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle gang including the dealing of illegal drugs.
The Hills Shire Council made inquiries into McKinnon’s gym after his arrest last year and said the gym had been operating without approval.
It was given a deadline to provide an appropriate development application.
Council confirmed it had since approved the gym to remain open.
“Development consent was approved on March 29, 2019 for the occupation and use of [the facility on Victoria Avenue] as an indoor recreation facility,” a council spokeswoman said.
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