Sad story of Shannen Moyle after she was caught with drugs in her home three times in six months
A 26-year-old Frankston woman was leading a happy, normal life until her personal life went awry and she turned to drugs. Here’s how she lost her job, twin brother’s support and liberty — all because of the scourge of ice.
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A criminal cleanskin caught with drugs in her home three times in six months had turned to ice because she couldn’t handle a relationship breakdown, a court has heard.
Shannen Moyle took a downward spiral into addiction after splitting with a long-term partner and then mixing with the wrong crowd.
Before this year the Frankston North 26-year-old had never been in trouble with the law, was a working member of the community and led a seemingly normal life.
But then things changed; she started taking ice, she fell out with her family, got involved with drug users and ended up behind bars.
Moyle pleaded guilty to more than a dozen drug possessions, proceeds of crime and bail breach charges at the online Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
The court heard in May she was staying at a Frankston house when police found ice, weighing a total of 3g, in the bathroom and her bedroom.
In August police searched a property where she had been forbidden from going to, finding Viagra pills in her handbag.
And on October 8 police again raided her home, uncovering bags of ice weighing 8g, an ecstasy pill, digital scales, and stolen bank and ID cards that had been taken in an Malvern aggravated burglary a few weeks prior.
Also in April police searched her bedroom and found a stolen guitar, a laptop, tobacco, phones and, bizarrely, a display stand of lighters nicked from a servo.
Moyle had originally been charged with more than 40 offences, including trafficking, but these were pleaded down to drug possessions, proceeds and bail-related crimes.
Her defence lawyer said a long-term relationship had broken up and she began to use ice, which then led to her losing her call centre job.
She said Moyle was “buying in bulk” to feed her .5g a day habit, but was not dealing, and denied she was involved in the burglary, saying she had found the stolen cards in a park.
She said it was particularly sad that she had become estranged from her twin brother because he was unhappy with the police attention her drug use had brought upon the family.
It had also indirectly led to the death of the sibling’s assistance dog after he moved out of the family home and the hound was poisoned, which Moyle blames herself for.
Over two sets of remand she had spent 24 days behind bars, much of it in COVID-19 pandemic quarantine.
Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge said all was not lost, and with support Moyle could turn her life into something worthwhile.
“I’m hoping after spending those days in custody you’ve got enough sense of what your future will look like if you continue to use drugs,” Mr Lethbridge said.
“It is such a waste… I’ve heard and read what a good, decent person you are… it is heartbreaking.
“You have to control your destiny.”
Moyle was released from custody and bailed for a community corrections order assessment.
She will reappear for sentencing on October 20.
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