Father of woman who died in drug-fuelled night out with Gary Ablett Snr wants justice
A GRIEVING father has spoken in depth for the first time in a decade about his belief that footy icon Gary Ablett Snr painted his daughter — who died after taking a cocktail of drugs in a hotel room with the Cats hero — as a starstruck party girl who couldn’t keep up with the lifestyle. This is his story.
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EXCLUSIVE: ALISHA Horan’s dad has spoken of his broken heart, the fact she never had a chance to have children and how 18 years later, he’s still waiting for Gary Ablett Sr to say sorry.
Speaking in depth for the first time in more than a decade, an emotional Alan Horan said his heartache over Alisha’s death is with him every day, but that fatal night took more than just his baby girl.
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Mr Horan hasn’t been able to watch a single game of football. Just another part of his soul ripped away.
“He never said ‘Sorry’, but I wouldn’t have expected it from that animal. It would have surprised me if he had,” he said.
“The pain, it is much the same as it was when it happened. You never get over it, you just learn to live with it.
“When you do, it comes back and you remember: She died and Ablett got away.”
Mr Horan still has many unanswered questions about what happened to Alisha in room 1265 of the Park Hyatt Hotel in Melbourne on February 17, 2000.
The retired Geelong star woke to find himself on the floor of the hotel bedroom, still in his clothes.
He saw 20-year-old Alisha not breathing and tried to wake her, pulling her eyelids back and giving her some chest pumps.
He called for help, and ambulance officers entered the room to the smell of cigarettes and saw bottles of discarded booze.
Ablett was in and out of consciousness, and he left the hotel within 15 minutes of help arriving.
“I was concerned about media and stuff,” he would later tell police.
Alisha died of a lethal combination of heroin, ecstasy and amphetamine after a five-day drug and alcohol-fuelled bender with Ablett.
By Ablett’s own admission he was drunk, tired and not thinking straight when he racked up lines of heroin for the pair to snort. He told her it was cocaine.
“I just remember lying there and I just … fell asleep,” he told police.
“And that’s the last thing I recollect, except ... for when I woke up, that’s when I found Alisha was in trouble.”
The excuse does not sit well with Mr Horan.
“He just left her. It was low. He just slipped out and took off,” he said.
“He didn’t care and wouldn’t have thought bugger-all when it happened.
“He would have only been worried about saving his own arse. Hoping he didn’t get done for supplying drugs to her. It was always ‘Look after No. 1, Gary Ablett’.
“Her life was wasted. She was just rubbed under the mat.
“As far as I’m concerned he supplied her with the drugs that killed her and he just got away with it.”
Mr Horan’s partner, Pauline Bennett, has seen the devastation the tragedy has had.
The pair wonder how Ablett could just leave her and call a friend, concerned about negative media attention the story would bring him.
“We want to know what happened during the night and why,” she said.
“If something may have been done earlier, she may still be here today.”
Coroner Noreen Toohey — who found that Alisha died as a result of drug use and who was critical of Ablett’s actions — made a similar observation when giving her findings.
“Had he (Ablett) been in a position to render assistance to Ms Horan ... it is possible that she might be alive today,” she said.
Through her dad’s eyes, Alisha was fun-loving with lots of personality. She had dreams of heading to the US and being a live-in nanny.
“She probably would have been married and had children. She would have been a great mum,” Mr Horan said.
“She was a beautiful person.”
His partner, Ms Bennett, added: “Ablett saw his son get married, he’ll become a grandfather. Alan won’t get that.”
Mr Horan was divorced from his wife when the children were young — Alisha was aged just two. But she remained “daddy’s girl” and the pair had a special bond.
Mr Horan’s last words to his daughter are a blur, but he knows he got a kiss as she’d never leave without doing that.
“You don’t think something like this is going to happen,” he said.
Mr Horan was at a mate’s panelbeating shop when Ms Bennett called.
“It’s Alisha. You need to come home straight away,” he recalls.
“She was on life support and they took her off it. I had to …” he said, unable to finish the sentence.
Ms Bennett jumps in: “They kept her all night and he had to make a decision in the morning. It’s a hard thing to watch to take her off it,” she said.
Ablett was twice her age and Alisha was infatuated with him. Her bedroom walls were covered in his posters. After all, he was the biggest name in football at the time.
Almost two decades after Alisha’s death, some things just haven't changed: Footballers are still doing drugs and the girls are still in hot pursuit of the players — regardless of the consequences.
“We are living the football reality. The red carpet and parties is just the fake world,” Ms Bennett said.
Mr Horan is still horrified at how Ablett and his legal team tried to paint Alisha as a starstruck party girl who couldn’t keep up with the lifestyle.
Mr Horan admits he did not know about her drug use, but struggles to fathom it was a regular occurrence. Certainly not at the level when she died.
“It was garbage. Whoever was looking after Ablett thought up things to make Alisha look bad. He was the snowy-haired boy,” he said.
The AFL and Geelong Football Club never reached out to the Horan family — it was all about protecting Brand Ablett and the game, the grieving dad said.
“Look after ‘God’. She was no one. She was only a small person that got involved with that animal and the football clubs and everyone else thought Ablett was God.
“She didn’t really matter,” he said.
“God can do no wrong — and that’s what he was back then.
“She didn’t get to live her life. She has been forgotten in this AFL bubble. They didn’t care about her. They wanted to make themselves look great.”
Mr Horan said that after the heartbreak of Alisha’s death, the police investigation, the Coroner’s inquiry and then finally Ablett’s court case provided no comfort.
“I always thought Ablett would get a clean slate, I don’t think Alisha mattered too much.
“Sweep her under the carpet. She never got justice,” he said.
Ablett declined to respond to most questions at her coronial inquest. He later made a full statement to police.
He was cleared of criminal charges relating to her death, but was fined $1500 for using and possessing heroin and ecstasy.
His lawyer, Philip Dunn, told a magistrate when Ablett pleaded guilty to the drug charges: “His life has been kicked around to smithereens since he admitted his mistake.
“This is a man who regrets his involvement with drugs.”
But to Mr Horan, any remorse is just self-pity.
“He is nothing but a lying mongrel. He’s certainly no legend. If you ask me, he is a complete and utter a---hole — that’s what he is and that’s what he’ll always be.”
The Sunday Herald Sun was unable to contact Gary Ablett Sr for comment.
TIMELINE
February 17, 2000
Ablett calls ambulance to room 1265 at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Melbourne. He then disappears.
February 18, 2000
Alisha daily to regain consciousness and dies in hospital from brain injury caused by the drug overdose.
February 19, 2000
Police were not able to reach Ablett until this day. He says “I was concerned about media and stuff”.
March 29, 2001
Coroner hands down ruling into the case and says Alisha may be alive if Ablett had not been under the influence of drugs. He did not give evidence at the inquest. “This is a clear case of a high profile sportsman failing to take this responsibility seriously,” Coroner Noreen Toohey ruled.
February 5, 2002
Ablett and his solicitor go to the police and outline what happened the night Alisha died. Ablett was charged with drug offences as a result of the interview.
November 14, 2002
Ablett pleads guilty to charges of possessing and using drugs. He was fined $1500 with $55 costs. Magistrate Peter Reardon tells him: “You are at a stage of your life when you should grow up.”