Matt Morris-Thomas pleads guilty to ramming police, carrying shotgun
From professional soccer dreams to methamphetamine addiction — this Seaford man had a loaded shotgun in his stolen car when police pulled him over.
South East
Don't miss out on the headlines from South East . Followed categories will be added to My News.
One Melbourne’s top former club soccer players spiralled into drug addiction and violence following the end of his playing and coaching career.
Former Seaford United playing coach Matt Morris-Thomas, 35, on Monday pleaded guilty in the Melbourne County Court to the theft of a Holden ute, illegally possessing a shotgun, drug driving, assaulting a police officer and risking the safety of two police officers by ramming their car three times when they pulled him over.
The court heard Morris-Thomas, of Seaford, was severely beaten on his first night on remand at the Metropolitan Remand Centre last October.
Morris-Thomas, a father-of-three, was on 12 counts of bail when two officers on patrol spotted him behind the wheel of a stolen Holden ute in Walnut Dr, Seaford.
Morris-Thomas put the ute into reverse, rammed the officers’ car three times, and tried to flee on foot.
The court heard Morris-Thomas tripped over, and kicked one of the officers in the chest when the officer caught up to him.
Officers found a loaded shotgun in the car, and Morris-Thomas tested positive for methamphetamine in hospital.
The court heard Morris-Thomas once aspired to play professionally in Europe, but his career was derailed by injury.
In Melbourne, Morris-Thomas has played for Seaford United, Frankston Pines, Peninsula Strikers and Noble Park FC.
Fighting back tears, Morris-Thomas, who is Indigenous, told two Elders during a Koori court sentencing conversation: “Soccer was everything, and I just lost it all.”
“I lost myself. I hated everything.
“I got into drugs, and it just mentally wrecked me.”
He told the court his aim after being released was to “never go back to bail again, it’s the worst”.
The court heard Morris-Thomas’s arrest followed a particularly tumultuous period in his life, including the end of his marriage and the discovery that the man who he believed to be his father was not.
Morris-Thomas said he planned to leave Melbourne following his release from prison, and relocate to near Lakes Entrance, where his mother lives.
Judge Nola Karapanagiotidis will sentence Morris-Thomas at a later date.