Troubled swimming champion Grant Hackett arrested
TROUBLED swimming champion Grant Hackett has been released from police custody, declaring he will seek more rehab after being arrested earlier today.
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TROUBLED swimming champion Grant Hackett has been released from police custody, declaring he will seek more rehab after being arrested earlier today.
The Olympic champion was arrested at his parents’ home and taken away in a police car after reports of a disturbance at the Gold Coast property.
Hackett’s dad Nev told the Gold Coast Bulletin the 36-year-old had been drinking heavily and “had a mental breakdown” at the family home.
He allegedly “flew into an uncontrollable rage’ forcing his family to call the police on him before he was arrested.
Asked how he was feeling as he left the Southport watch-house, he said: “Not the best.”
Seven News shared video of the swimming champion handcuffed in a police car as he was taken to Southport police watch-house.
Witnesses told the television network the troubled star was “going off” and stabbing a knife into a chopping block before he was detained at his parents’ home.
Hackett — wearing a baseball cap, white T-shirt and shorts — was seen resting his head on the seat of the police car before he raised his cuffs to the window and made a “shaka” sign, the friendly “hang loose” gesture often associated with Hawaiian surf culture.
Queensland Police said they had arrested a man following a disturbance at an address in Mermaid Waters at around midday.
Hackett’s father Nev said the 36-year-old had been detained over “mental health issues” but refused to comment further, according to the Courier Mail.
He was found asleep at the family home in Mermaid Waters just before noon after reports of a disturbance, the Courier Mail reported.
The swimmer, who won the men’s 1500 metres freestyle at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and at Athens in 2004, remains in custody.
7 News at 6pm: Former Olympian Grant Hackett arrested by police on the Gold Coast. Taken to Southport police watchhouse. #7News pic.twitter.com/4AuG52dPpo
â 7 News Adelaide (@7NewsAdelaide) February 15, 2017
**UPDATE** Grant Hackett arrested at his parents house. Witnesses say he was 'going off' and stabbing a knife into a chopping block. https://t.co/DAsvoMLIcT
â 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) February 15, 2017
UPDATE: Grant Hackett appeared dazed as he held up his handcuffs to camera, as the police car pulled into the Southport Watchhouse. #9News pic.twitter.com/Uce7W6au0k
â Nine News Gold Coast (@9NewsGoldCoast) February 15, 2017
MORE: Hackett seen sipping wine with mystery blonde after vowing to ‘get off the drink’
Hackett: ‘I tried to hold my life together with drugs’
The 10-time world championship gold medallist has struggled in his personal life in recent years, after retiring from the sport in 2008, making a brief and unsuccessful comeback attempt in 2015.
In April last year, Hackett apologised after being accused of “forcefully” groping a passenger and “tweaking” his nipple on an interstate flight following a dispute over a seat being reclined too far.
Hackett phoned his alleged victim to apologise for his actions on the flight from Adelaide to Melbourne. He pledged to donate a sum of money to a charity of the man’s choice.
“I seriously and genuinely regret my poor behaviour,” he said in a statement. “I have stuffed up more than once and am working on these issues.”
It came a couple of years after the former Olympic hero spent time in a US rehab clinic where he was treated for a sleeping pill addiction after photos emerged of him looking lost with a singlet wrapped around his waist as a pair of shorts.
Before that there were two other high profile controversies. In 2011 he trashed the Melbourne apartment he shared with then wife Candice Alley, who was home with their twins Jagger and Charlize.
As many as eight police cars were called to the luxury apartment after a distressed 000 was made to police.
Pictures emerged of the damage caused in the apartment — which included some of the items his wife most cherished like her piano, a dresser and framed photographs.
A bedroom door was also destroyed, as were some of the children’s toys.
The couple later said they were dealing with some “private issues”.
Months later he had an alcohol-fuelled night at Crown Casino during — and after — the Logie Awards in April 2012, where he was asked to leave a Channel 9 party and fell asleep in a stairwell.
At about 3am and the Olympian was approached by bouncers at a nightclub in the casino complex and told he should “call it a night”. Hackett is said to have fully co-operated with staff and promptly left, without an escort.
The following morning Channel 9’s Today aired footage of a sweaty Hackett at the party struggling to form a sentence. When asked by a reporter for his favourite song, Hackett stumbles: “I don’t know my favourite song ‘cos there’s are so many favourite songs. ‘Cos if I could name one I would.”
The following month he and Alley split and he was dumped from his ambassador role at the Alannah and Madeline Foundation which aims to protect children from violence.
Originally published as Troubled swimming champion Grant Hackett arrested