Bobridge trial

An Olympian and a fellow former elite sportsman used “cycling code” to organise the exchange of hundreds of ecstasy pills before they were caught up in a secret police sting, a court has been told.

Bobridge with the silver medal-winning 2016 Men's Team Pursuit team.

An Olympian and a fellow former elite sportsman used “cycling code” to organise the exchange of hundreds of ecstasy pills before they were caught up in a secret police sting, a court has been told.

Dual Olympic silver-medal winning cyclist Jack Bobridge is on trial in the District Court accused of being involved in the supply of ecstasy pills between March and July 2017.

Opening the State case today, prosecutor Joel Grinceri told the jury Bobridge was supplying drugs to a “middle man” – former champion cyclist Alex McGregor – with the pair allegedly nabbed when police began targeting drug dealers in Perth nightclubs.

Mr Grinceri said McGregor became a focus of Operation Inception after McGregor sold an undercover police operative, named Dean, 10 pills at popular nightspot Amplifier Bar, in the early hours of March 26, 2017.

After Dean handed over $300 for the drugs, Mr Grinceri said they agreed to stay in contact via the encrypted smartphone messaging application Wickr, with the police officer purchasing pills from McGregor on three occasions over 3 ½ months.

Former olympic cyclist Jack Bobridge leaves the Magistrates Court in 2017.

The court was told the police officer was sold 50 pills on the second occasion he dealt with McGregor, and 99 pills on the third.

McGregor, a self-confessed former drug user who has already been dealt with by the court for his drug-dealing role, is the star witness in the prosecution case, and took the stand today.

Mr Grinceri said it was expected his credibility would be questioned but his evidence would be corroborated by other witnesses, including the undercover cop.

But in opening his case, defence lawyer Sam Vandongen declared McGregor “is a liar”.

“Mr Bobridge never supplied drugs to Mr McGregor, ever,” he said.

“Mr McGregor is a liar. Mr McGregor has done a deal with the prosecution and as a result of that deal, Mr McGregor go 40 per cent off his sentence, so he’s got a great deal at stake.

“His credibility is absolutely going to be important during this trial … pay close attention to what he has to say.”

Taking the stand, McGregor said he met Bobridge in 2014 through cycling, and said their relationship progressed from acquaintances, to friends, and “then we turned into selling drugs together”.

“It pretty much went to the extreme,” he said.

McGregor said the pair were drinking together in the early hours of March 2017 when they made a “deal” that McGregor would sell the ecstasy pills he was supplied by Bobridge to his contacts in the Perth nightclub scene.

He claimed the following night he sold 25 pills to his friends and “randoms”, and that over the next few months he would pick up bags of pills from Mr Bobridge’s cycling studio near Hyde Park.

The former cyclist said “eventually we were dealing in amounts” that meant it was safer to use Wickr to communicate, saying they used “cycling code”.

Jack Bobridge.

Using an example, he said “going to the ergo” meant Bobridge’s gym. “So I’d go pick things up from the gym, picking up drugs,” he said.

“On one occasion I’d asked for a 30-day program because I’d asked for 30 pills. I’d get a reply which said ‘I can’t do 30, but can do 15.”

McGregor claimed on one occasion he picked up 100 pills that were hidden under a floorboard in Bobridge’s gym, saying the last time he dealt with Bobridge, he collected 300.

He added he would go to a coffee shop next to the Leederville cycling shop where Bobridge worked, and ask for an empty coffee cup, which he would use to fill with cash and hand to the Olympian while he was at work.

“I’d make it look like I was buying him a coffee, when I was really paying him,” he said.

Bobridge has pleaded not guilty to four counts of supplying MDMA to another. McGregor will continue giving evidence today.

Originally published as Bobridge trial