AFL coach Mark Thompson smoked ice with bikie housemate: court
Mark “Bomber” Thompson has revealed how his guilt over the Essendon drug saga left his life in ruins and led to him spending his days smoking ice with a bikie housemate, watching YouTube videos and trading online.
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Fallen AFL legend Mark “Bomber” Thompson has revealed his pain over the Essendon drug saga led him to ice, cryptocurrency and a bizarre friendship with a bikie.
The former champion of the game told a court that his new label of “accused drug trafficker” was soul-crushing and embarrassing.
Thompson, 55, fronted the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to fight charges including three counts of trafficking amphetamine MDA and four counts of possessing drugs including ice, LSD and Xanax.
An emotional Thompson spent more than three hours in the witness box as he told the court of his “sad” life after football.
The former star said he had been smoking a gram of ice a week, watching YouTube videos and spending up to 12 hours a day working on his bitcoin portfolio in his Port Melbourne home after leaving the AFL in “a bad way”.
“Everything I believed in … was just in ruins,” Thompson said.
“I just couldn’t believe we could do that to a group of young men.
“I think about it every day … I’m still not over it.”
He told the court in late 2017, a man — convicted drug trafficker Thomas Windsor — knocked on his front door and came in for a cup of coffee.
“I’d left all my friends and my social life … I was happy to open the door and talk to someone,” he said.
Thompson said the man, who had alleged links to the Rebels, was initially charming and engaging, and soon began pressuring Thompson to let him move in.
“I knew he shouldn’t be there, but he broke me down,” Thompson said, describing Windsor as “a pretty scary bloke” who often broke into locked rooms in the home to “snoop”.
“He is a lot tougher than me … I didn’t know how to get rid of him.”
Police prosecutor Senior Constable Tom Roberts challenged Thompson’s “absurd” claim that he let Windsor live in his house with no questions asked.
“There’s a knock on the door, and a bald, muscly, tattooed man who you don’t know is invited into your house” Sen-Const Roberts said.
Thompson replied: “It’s weird, hey.”
He told the court he “just wanted someone to talk to”. The pair never spoke about Windsor’s drug dealing but they smoked ice together.
Sen Const. Roberts put to Thompson: “It would sound, objectively, slightly absurd, that someone would be tolerant of a stranger who couch surfs and breaks into parts of their house and goes through their things.”
Thompson said while it was something he didn’t love, it wasn’t a deal breaker.
“It’s not the end of the world being a snoop … who cares,” he said.
“Someone who makes mistakes in the world, I try to give them chances, I don’t knock them down.”
The two-time premiership coach said his ice use was a biweekly habit, which he adopted more than a year before he met Windsor.
“I don’t think I was addicted, it just masks the pain, I think less about the things that worry me,” he said.
Thompson said scales found in his home were used to weigh the drugs he was buying, to “make sure you got what you paid for”.
He shook his head, adding: “I can’t believe I’m saying this.”
Windsor, 29, pleaded guilty to single counts of drug trafficking and possessing items for the purpose of drug trafficking in exchange for a get-out-of-jail card in September last year.
Instead of further jail time, he was placed on an 18-month community corrections order. He was also sentenced to 169 days’ imprisonment, but that term had already been served.
FALLEN LEGEND DENIES TRAFFICKING
Thompson became emotional as he admitted to purchasing and smoking ice, but vehemently denied trafficking drugs allegedly found in his home during a police raid.
“I’m a drug taker, I’m sad that I am,” he told the court. “But I never had any intention of selling any drugs.”
Police alleged 481 amphetamine MDA pills were found inside Thompson’s locked ground floor bedroom and an additional 33g of methylamphetamine were found in a metal canister upstairs.
In his third hour on the witness stand, the fallen AFL star maintained he had simply placed the bag of pills inside a metal canister in the locked room at Windsor’s request.
“He threw me a bag and said I want to put these in the locked room for a day or two,” he said. “He had his game face on.”
Thompson claimed he didn’t know what was in the bag and agreed it was “foolish” not to question Windsor. “It was the wrong thing to do,” he said.
When asked by police prosecutor Snr Con Roberts if he agreed that almost 500 pills far exceeded “personal use” and was a trafficable amount, he replied: “I don’t know … it’s all mathematics.”
Digital scales, a shoebox containing multiple empty deal bags, four ice pipes and a locked box with sealed bags containing drugs were also allegedly uncovered in the January 5, 2018 raid.
Thompson vehemently denied the pills were his, despite a forensic expert telling the court the DNA found on the plastic bag containing the drugs was 100 billion times more likely to belong to Thompson than anyone else.
Thompson maintained he had stored the bag containing 481 pills in his room at the request of his live-in bikie mate.
Thompson said despite keeping 20 highly valuable signed 2007 premiership jumpers in the locked bedroom, he had never used the keypad lock to open it.
A police informant had earlier testified officers were forced to break through the locked door during the raid. Thompson said he didn’t know why it was locked that day.
Defence barrister Peter Matthews said Thompson had substantial wealth at the time of the police raid and there was no financial incentive for the alleged offending.
“There was no reason for him to traffic,” Mr Matthews said.
The emotional AFL legend apologised and said he was “totally embarrassed” to find himself in court.
“I always got on with the police force,” Thompson said. “To be here right now, it’s pretty soul-crushing.”
Speaking of his obsession with cryptocurrency, the champion player said he felt like he was “flying”.
“I was still sad … that was the closest thing I found to replace what I was doing (with footy),” he said.
Thompson told the court he believed he was capable of making up to $30,000 a week in “passive income” before the online currency market crashed, though he said he still believes bitcoin has “exciting” times ahead.
EXPERT WITNESS’S DNA FINDINGS
A key witness also took the stand today, with a forensic expert specialising in DNA telling the court she tested several small plastic bags and cigarette butts which were found at the Port Melbourne home during last January’s police raid.
DNA found on items was 100 billion times more likely to be from Thompson than anyone else, the court heard.
Two or three prosecution witnesses were to be called today to give “limited evidence”, the court was told earlier.
It comes after Monday’s hearing was delayed by a false start, with Sen Const. Roberts telling Magistrate Duncan Reynolds that lengthy talks with the DNA expert during a two-hour delay in Monday’s court proceedings meant they had been able to “substantially narrow the issues” of the case.
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Police prosecutor Senior Constable Tom Roberts on Monday told the court the evidence from the forensic expert will play a key role for both the prosecutors and Thompson’s defence.
“It is in the best interest of both parties,” he said.
“We’ve worked through some issues with DNA evidence,” he said.
Police allege they found illicit substances, including MDMA, LSD and Xanax at the Port Melbourne home of the champion ex-player and Geelong premiership coach during a raid in January last year.
His fingerprints were allegedly found on drugs stashed in his bedroom and on a package containing ice and amphetamines, in a mezzanine area.
Police allege digital scales, resealable bags and Xanax tablets, alongside ecstasy tablets and ice pipes were found in his locked bedroom.
Police prosecutor Senior Constable Tom Roberts told the court the evidence from the forensic expert will play a key role for both the prosecutors and Thompson’s defence.