Thomas Baden Field was homeless, on drugs at 11 and left to ‘raise himself’ Toowoomba court told

A 20-year-old had to ‘raise himself’ after being on the street at 11, and now he wants to help other youth in similar dire straits.

A 20-year-old man who started using drugs at age 11 after becoming homeless has told a court he now wants to help other youths who found themselves in such dire situations.

Thomas Baden Field was homeless at the age of 11 and started using cannabis which escalated into meth and heroin use by the time he was 15, his solicitor Ryan McCullough told Toowoomba Magistrates Court.

Without family support or much schooling, his client had basically “raised himself” but he realised that drugs had been a major issue since and an issue he wanted to get away from, he said.

Field appeared via video link from the prison to plead guilty to possessing 90 tablets of medication for which he had no script, a pipe and straw used for drug use, a syringe and needle, and knife when stopped by police on West St on October 11, 2022; possessing a knife on Orlando Court, Wilsonton Heights, on November 6; possessing a purse and a number of credit cards suspected as tainted property on November 13, at Middle Ridge; and possessing personal cards, someone else’s driver’s licence, syringe and needle, and drug utensils at Harristown on December 1.

The court was told Field had a significant history of dishonesty offences and he had spent 111 days in pre-sentence custody before appearing in court to plead guilty to all charges.

Mr McCullough said his client at 20 had fathered four children, his first when he was just 13, but tragically three of those children had since died.

The mother of two of those deceased children was in jail and his client had one remaining son who lived with that child’s mother, he said.

Upon his release from prison it was Field’s intention to live with non-drug-using friends in Brisbane, stay away from drugs and eventually become a youth advocate to help other young people who may fall into the lifestyle that he had endured, Mr McCullough said.

Acting magistrate Kay Ryan sentenced Field to nine months in jail but, declaring the 111 days of pre-sentence custody as time served, ordered he be released on parole immediately.