Stephen Dank warns he won’t be silenced over shooting at Melbourne home
STEPHEN Dank has fired his own warning shot after his home was riddled with six bullets in a cold-blooded early-morning attack.
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STEPHEN Dank has fired his own warning shot after his home was riddled with six bullets in a cold-blooded early-morning attack.
Mr Dank told the Sunday Herald Sun exclusively he believed the attack was linked to his knowledge of drug use at elite sporting clubs.
“There are some anxious people from within the AFL, the NRL and ASADA with what we are about to release,” he said.
“I won’t be silenced.”
He said he did not believe there could be any other explanation for the shooting: “I don’t have enemies or debts.”
Asked if he was worried about his safety, he said: “I’m more resolute than ever to fight this to the very end.”
He also told Channel Nine: “I want to thank people for their concern following this morning’s shooting at my home.
“Fortunately, I am OK. I have my suspicions as to why this happened. I will say, I will not be silenced or bullied and will continue in my attempt to put the truth out there.”
Mr Dank pulled out of a speech at a sportsmen’s lunch at the South Bendigo Football Netball Club, where he was expected to give details about his dealings at Essendon, NRL side Cronulla and other sporting clubs.
It comes as Mr Dank is trying to delay his appeal over the AFL’s life ban, due for a directions hearing on Wednesday. He is seeking more time to prepare his case.
But one of Mr Dank’s former associates, convicted drug trafficker and biochemist Shane Charter, said there could be many explanations for the shooting.
Mr Charter said Mr Dank had put a number of people offside over the years.
“The list would be very long,” he said. “Where do you start? He’s decimated two sporting codes.”
Law-enforcement agencies have investigated allegations some of Mr Dank’s former business partners interstate had ties to the Comancheros bikie gang.
A police source said it was likely to be a “messy probe”.
He said he did not believe the shoot-up was an attempt on Mr Dank’s life, but his “murky” existence and background might make it a challenging investigation.
Police will be looking into whether it was commissioned by a disgruntled person.
The police source said claims by former Adelaide Crows coach Graham Cornes that Mr Dank was shot at because of planned comments at the Bendigo function were “questionable” and “unlikely”.
But it was more than likely Mr Dank’s injury was an accident, the source said.
“The blokes who sort of do this sort of thing aren’t generally (Olympic gold medal shooter) Russell Mark.”
The gunman came to the front of Mr Dank’s Melbourne home shortly before 2.20am.
He was awake and on the lower level of the modern townhouse in Ascot Vale. His partner was also at home.
The gunman walked up to the front gate and sprayed six shots, with a bullet fragment hitting Mr Dank in the head.
He was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital for treatment for a broken nose and a cut under his eye but was released about 6.30am after speaking to police in hospital.
The mastermind of Essendon’s supplements program was found guilty last year of violating the AFL’s anti-doping code, by the league’s Anti-Doping Tribunal.
He launched an appeal last July and vowed: “I will leave no stone unturned in pursuing justice”.
Mr Dank’s case is due to be heard by the league tribunal’s appeals board this week, but its lawyers said Mr Dank had claimed the timetable was “totally unacceptable”.
In a letter to Mr Dank and ASADA, the board’s lawyers said they wanted the case to proceed on Wednesday and called for him to quit stalling.
“At that directions hearing, the board requests Mr Dank to explain the nature of the proceedings apparently precluding his legal team from dealing with the appeal,” it said.
Mr Dank was found guilty of 10 of 34 violations of the AFL anti-doping code, including trafficking, attempting to traffic and “complicity in matters related to a range of prohibited substances”.
Detectives from the Serious Crime Response Team were at Mr Dank’s address throughout the day.
They are viewing CCTV footage from a nearby home.
Mr Dank has been caught up in a failed agribusiness venture described as a “Ponzi” scheme that has left him heavily in debt.
It was reported this year that a bank subsidiary was suing him for $90,000 over a loan nearly 10 years ago to invest in Great Southern.
He has also fought multiple costly legal battles following the Essendon scandal.
Mr Dank was at the centre of the Bombers’ supplements program in 2012, which led to the World Anti-Doping Agency banning 34 current and past players for 12 months.
Coach James Hird was also accused of being involved in the scandal and resigned after its poor performances last year.
Mr Dank was also accused of giving banned supplements to Cronulla Sharks players when he was at the NRL club.
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