Unsuspecting moment that led to Brett Finch’s fall from grace
Brett Finch this week avoided being sent to jail but the unsuspecting moment that led to his downfall can now be revealed.
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WARNING: Graphic
When Brett Finch began firing off vile messages about wanting to engage in sexual acts with young children via an adult chat service, little did he know one of the men on the other end was a convicted paedophile.
While it was unknown to him at the time, it was the chance event that set in motion the former NRL champion’s spectacular fall from grace, which this week culminated when he was sentenced in a Sydney court.
A once promising media and commentating career is in tatters, and he has become a social pariah since his arrest late last year.
Between November 2020 and January 2021, Finch used FastMeet — a gay sex chat service — to leave seven voice messages for other men.
During each of the messages — described by a judge this week as “highly depraved” — he expressed his desire to engage in sexual acts with young boys aged between 12 and 16.
Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to one count of using a carriage service to make available child abuse material.
During his evidence to the court, Finch explained that the messages were a part of a convoluted and ill-thought-out plan to score cocaine and feed his spiralling drug addiction.
District Court Judge Phillip Mahony labelled his scheme “absurd” but accepted that the messages were born out of his addiction to drugs.
Judge Mahony also found the messages had serious consequences, including normalising the abuse of children.
“SELINA”
Finch’s spiral towards rock bottom began when he visited his dealer “Selina” looking to buy cocaine, he told the court during his evidence at a sentence hearing earlier this year.
The court heard during his playing days, Finch had struggled with excessive drinking, but did not touch drugs.
However, that changed in retirement when, on an overseas holiday, he tried cocaine for the first time and became instantly addicted.
By his own admission, at the height of his drug problem, he was using 12 to 25 grams of cocaine per week.
“(Finch) gave evidence that he would take drugs until he would pass out,” Judge Mahoney said in his judgment this week.
“This would involve taking as many drugs as possible over a period of up to five days.”
When his dealer said that she only had two grams of cocaine, he asked if she knew where she could get some more.
So she called her supplier, who lived nearby.
During that same call, as well as asking for cocaine for Finch, the dealer asked if the supplier had methamphetamine for her own use.
According to Finch, the supplier said he didn’t but had used FastMeet to score ice.
“He said he didn’t (have any methamphetamine) but he indicated a chat line where he had obtained meth in the past,” Finch told the court.
Given it was a male chat service, Finch agreed to leave a message on behalf of his female dealer.
In exchange for helping her source a phone number to obtain drugs, Finch said he was given two grams of cocaine for free.
“HYPERSEXUAL”
According to Finch’s version of events, it planted one of the two seeds for his offending.
The other came during one of his three stints in rehab.
During group counselling sessions, he told the court, he heard gay men talk about taking methamphetamine making them “hypersexual”.
In November 2020, Finch claimed he was “desperate” to score drugs.
He said during the pandemic, dealers weren’t driving on the roads and had called every dealer in his contacts and come up dry.
So, according to Finch, he turned to FastMeet.
Over a three-month period from November 6, 2020 to January 30, 2021, he left seven messages for other users.
Each of the voice messages began in a similar way — with a description of himself, his age and his body.
The content of the messages cannot be printed due to an order of the court and most of them are too vulgar to print.
But he also included references to desires to engage in sexual activity with young boys as young as 12.
He was asked by his barrister Michael Smith why he left multiple child abuse messages over several months.
“In the hope I could obtain cocaine,” Finch said.
By Finch’s own admission the messages were “sick” and he was “disgusted” in himself.
According to Finch, in his mind, if he left a “twisted” message, those that replied would likely be high on methamphetamine and would therefore be able to help him score cocaine.
This was despite the fact he did not discuss drugs in any of the messages.
“SICK F***”
At the time, Victorian police were honing in on a convicted child sex offender, who was using FastMeet, and began listening in on the chat service.
And when Finch left a message for that paedophile, who cannot be named for legal reasons, Finch came to the attention of police.
As a result of their investigations, Victorian police passed on Finch’s details to their NSW counterparts.
Finch said he stopped using the service when a man replied to one of his messages inviting him to meet up and engage in the sexual abuse of two children.
“It made me sick, I was disgusted, I instantly told him he was a sick f*** and to f*** off. What I said in those messages was horrendous,” Finch said.
He vehemently denied the messages were fantasies and he stopped using the service 11 months before his arrest.
Finch also denied he had a sexual interest in children, but rather the sick messages were the culmination of a desperate attempt to feed his drug addiction.
Regardless of his motivation, Judge Mahoney said those vile voice messages still had serious repercussions and there was a risk it would “normalise” and encourage the abuse of children for the person on the other end.
“There was a risk … of the material being acquired by a person susceptible to act in the manner described and to offend against children,” Judge Mahony said.
“That risk materialised here when a convicted child offender in Victoria responded.”
“NO ONE CARES”
Following his retirement from rugby league in 2013, Finch’s life has been plagued by drug use, addiction and mental health issues.
He spoke openly about his struggles and being unable to recapture the highs of playing first-grade rugby league.
“I learnt a lot about myself and the things that I’m dealing with,” Finch previously told The Matty Johns Podcast.
“I had to realise I’m not going to get the highs I had in footy and for so long I was chasing that.
“One day I was a football player, the next day no one cares. It’s over. I struggled to get any satisfaction in life.
“You train to extreme levels, you’re super fit and super strong. I thought I was a mentally tough bloke. I was trying to get some highs in my life.
“Someone I was seeing professionally told me to go down to Bondi Beach and watch the sunrise.
“So I did that and I thought, ‘Is this it? Who gives a s***. This is nothing like playing a grand final’.”
Finch played in two grand final losses for the Sydney Roosters in 2003 and 2004 before winning a grand final with a star-studded Melbourne team in 2009.
However, that title was struck from the record books as a result of the Storm’s salary cap cheating.
His crowning moment came in 2006 when he kicked the winning field goal for NSW in State of Origin game one.
He played 270 NRL games across stints at Canberra, the Roosters, Parramatta and Melbourne, as well as playing 60 games in the English Super League.
He subsequently took up a career as a commentator with Fox Sports, 2GB and Channel 9 in retirement but departed all of them amid his personal problems.
SENTENCE
Finch was this week sentenced to a two-year term of imprisonment, but Judge Mahony ordered that he be released immediately to serve his term in the community.
He must be of good behaviour and was released into the care of his psychologist.
“You must understand that this is a jail sentence that you are required to serve in the community,” Judge Mahony said.
“If you breach any conditions that are attached to the order, without reasonable cause or excuse, consequences will follow that may include you serving the balance of the term in custody.”
Judge Mahony took into account that Finch’s crimes did not involve any child abuse images or videos.
He also found that Finch did not have a sexual interest in children and described his risk of reoffending as low.
“This man does not have any sexual interest in children,” Finch’s lawyer Paul McGirr said outside court.
“Unfortunately, drugs have played a part in his ramblings, which is what they were.
“It’s just another example of the dangers of drugs and how far they can send someone into a spiral.”
Originally published as Unsuspecting moment that led to Brett Finch’s fall from grace
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