Olympian Scott Miller claims marriage to Charlotte Dawson put him on the path to drug doom

Jailed Olympian Scott Miller has revealed his relationship to late ex wife Charlotte Dawson opened the door to his involvement with drugs.

Charlotte Dawson with Scott Miller.

Ex-Olympic swimmer Scott Miller has revealed his relationship with late ex-wife, Charlotte Dawson, resulted in him being introduced to drugs and put him on a path to jail.

When their romance unfolded in the late 1990s, Dawson and Miller were among Sydney’s most famous and in-demand celebrity couples.

He was a handsome swimmer who won a silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. She was a glamorous media identity and television host.

Both were guaranteed fixtures at red carpet events and their relationship dominated the pages of glossy magazines.

Since then Miller has been jailed multiple times for his role in drug operations while Dawson took her own life in 2014 – one day after the swimmer’s 39th birthday.

Charlotte Dawson with swimmer Scott Miller at their wedding in 1999.

On Friday in the Downing Centre District Court, the 49-year-old was sentenced over an ice supply ring in Sydney’s Inner West where ounces of the drug were sealed inside instant noodle containers and sold to drug users.

Miller, who pleaded guilty to supplying a large commercial quantity of drugs and directing a criminal group, submitted an affidavit to the court detailing his descent into the drug world that began with his marriage to Dawson.

“Charlotte was engaged in the fashion and media industry and it was in the context of my exposure to the lifestyle that my wife’s social and employment connections afforded that I was first introduced to personal drug use,” Miller wrote in the affidavit.

“Whilst it was not significant I realise in retrospect that it was (the) start on my long and disastrous involvement with drug abuse,” Miller wrote.

After moving to Sydney, Miller’s “new lifestyle” saw him fail to make the team for the Sydney 2000 Olympics, his affidavit said.

“This failure … was also a factor in the deterioration of my marriage, which ended after three or four years,” he wrote.

Miller and Dawson met in 1997 when she was one of the judges that named the Olympian as the Cleo Bachelor of the year.

They were married in April 1999 at Quay Restaurant overlooking Sydney Harbour in front of a host of celebrity guests.

Dawson and Miller at their wedding

In court, Miller’s lawyer Greg Goold said a psychiatrist had diagnosed the ex Olympian with a depressive illness that is common to elite athletes when their sporting careers end.

Miller’s affidavit also said his mental state was on a downward trajectory even as his career was taking off.

He felt “separation from family and friends difficult” while living as a young man at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra while “pursuing glory for his country came at an expense of everything else in his life”, the court heard.

This was compounded by the fact that Miller finished second to Russian Denis Pankratov in controversial circumstances in the 100m butterfly final at the 1996 Olympics.

“He felt shattered to the extent that his life was ruined,” Mr Goold said.

The common thread was that when stress emerged in Miller’s life, which included when his various business ventures failed, he turned to drugs, Mr Goold told the court.

The couple were a near permanent fixture on the social scene.

In the time since, Miller has served multiple stints in jail for drug offences and became involved in the sex industry to the extent that he set up an escort referral agency from an office in the Sydney CBD.

His most recent jailing came in 2022 when he was sentenced to a maximum five years and six months after pleading guilty to his role in an ice supply and manufacturing ring that unfolded in 2020.

On Friday, the court heard the offences Miller was being sentenced over were linked to the 2020 supply ring.

The court heard Miller supplied 504g of ice – that he received from his two co-offenders who were dealing with kilograms of the drugs and identity fraud documentation – from a Haberfield property between April and October in 2020.

Police broke into the Ramsay St property and installed surveillance devices in July 2020, the court heard.

They then watched as the trio took delivery of 1kg blocks of the drugs in dead drops where an unknown person would leave a package of the drug at the property.

Miller with his medals that he won during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

Miller and the other two people – who pleaded guilty and have been sentenced – sealed portions of the drugs in “noodle cups” and “dried noodle packages”, the court heard.

One of the people claimed Miller “was her boss” in the operation.

But Judge Andrew Scotting told the court Miller “did not run the operation”.

Instead, the judge told the court the ex Olympian “introduced the others” to an overseas “upline supplier”.

Miller being arrested in 2021 over a drug supply operation

He also told the court he was satisfied Miller’s post Olympic mental troubles – which included depression and anxiety – had contributed to his offending and that he would likely not reoffend.

Miller had been abstinent from drugs in jail and had completed a degree in building and construction at Curtin University, scoring high distinctions, while in jail.

Miller could be released from jail as early as Wednesday with Judge Scotting sentencing him to a non parole period of one year in jail, much of which would be covered the time he has already served.

“I accept that the point has been reached that no further rehabilitation will be gained by keeping him in jail,” Judge Scotting told the court.

Corrective Services reported to the court that Miller had been a model prisoner.

Miller will be eligible for parole on May 15.

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