Tassie’s most notorious gym junkies and their heinous crimes exposed
A body builder turned predatory murderer, a gym enthusiast behind a nightclub shooting and a dual Olympian turned major drug trafficking player. See the demise of some of Tasmania’s most notorious gym junkies >>
Tasmania
Don't miss out on the headlines from Tasmania. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Tassie teachers guilty of vile crimes against students
- Crimes revealed: Tassie’s child sex offenders named
AN ENORMOUS bodybuilder turned predatory murderer, a Tasmanian gym enthusiast and lifting champion behind a nightclub shooting in Hobart’s city centre, and a dual Olympian turned major drug trafficking player.
This Mercury investigation uncovers the demise of some of Tasmania’s most notorious gym junkies and their heinous crimes.
MARK RODNEY JONES
In 2019, it took a jury in Tasmania’s Supreme Court just over two hours to find former professional bodybuilder Mark Rodney Jones guilty of the murder of Bradley Breward.
Jones, 43 at the time of his sentencing, admitted to waterboarding and suffocating his 22-year-old victim.
Despite claiming he did not intend to kill his victim, the Supreme Court heard Jones spent weeks hunting for Mr Breward after allegedly stealing his ute.
Jones used social media, offering cash rewards, to appeal for information regarding Mr Breward’s whereabouts before finding his man in a Newnhan flat on New Year’s Day, 2017.
The court heard Jones and an employee, Ricky John Izard, entered the apartment where they waterboarded Mr Breward and twice suffocated him with a plastic bag. The second time, Mr Breward did not wake up.
The two men disposed of Mr Breward’s weighted down body in Lake Eugenana before heading to a George Town property where their clothes, Mr Breward’s clothes, and an inflatable raft from K-Mart in a 44-gallon drum.
Jones was given a 22-year jail sentence and his employee Izard, who pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary and the lesser charge of manslaughter, was sentenced to 10 years.
Jones later appealed his sentence but withdrew the appeal last year.
After his sentencing, details came to light that emphasised Jones’ violent tendencies dating back to when he was just 19 years of age.
At 19 he was sentenced to three years in jail for rape and attempted anal rape in a Devonport carpark in 1995.
Just eight months on from his release for that offence, the then 22-year-old faced pleaded guilty two counts of rape and two more of anal rape of a 17-year-old girl he met at a school leaver’s party.
For that he was sentenced to four years in prison with an additional year added after prosecutors successfully argues the original was inadequate during an appeal.
The victim of the latter reportedly told the court that during the incident, she was strangled so hard, she thought she was going to die as her nose and eyes began to bleed.
FABIAN JAMES ACKERLEY TRUEMAN
Fabian James Ackerley Trueman, a Queensland body builder, was caught with 54.8g of methamphetamines in a Hannah Montana snaplock bag in his van in Hobart on January 19, 2011.
The Supreme Court heard it was one of numerous drug deals Trueman carried out which were eventually detected by an undercover police sting.
He and his supplier used code such as “beers” or “crayfish” when talking about deals.
Police phone tapping, a GPS tracker on his work van and film of him as he allegedly picked up drugs, all formed part of the prosecution’s case.
Crown prosecutor Jackie Hartnett argued Trueman would call a Nugent property and arrange to “catch up for a couple” or “a three pack” at the pub.
He would then pick up the drugs from a drop-off point.
Trueman and another man were intercepted in Hobart, in January 2011, where police found drugs and $2700 his underpants.
A search of his house revealed bags with a Hannah Montana motif and steroids, but no methamphetamines.
Trueman’s lawyer Wayne Olding told the court his client was a changed man during his trial.
“He is completely rehabilitated. He has completely removed himself from the drug scene,” Mr Olding said.
“He has got himself a good job with a significant income.
“Are we now to send him back to a place where we can undo that rehabilitation?”
Trueman was jailed for 10 months on February 28, 2015 for trafficking a controlled substance.
WAYNE WILLIAM HOWLETT
Hobart power lifter Wayne William Howlett was given a five year jail sentence after firing 25 rounds from a semiautomatic weapon into the door of a popular Hobart nightclub in 2018.
Hobart Supreme Court Justice Michael Brett said it was “pure luck” that no one was injured or killed during the shooting.
30 people were at Pablo’s nightclub at the time of the shooting.
The Supreme Court in Hobart heard Howlett had been drinking and taking illicit drugs on the night of June 23 and had exchanged text messages with a friend that Justice Brett said suggested Howlett harboured a “festering resentment” towards the club’s manager.
“(Your actions were) motivated by your desire to retaliate against the manager of the nightclub for a perceived slight arising from his comments the night before,” he said.
“You brought dangerous gun violence to an otherwise safe and peaceful city.”
The court heard Howlett enjoyed success as a powerlifter before he could no longer due to an injury in 2017.
Justice Brett acknowledged this led to Howlett relapsing into illicit drug use.
Howlett had pleaded guilty to recklessly discharging a firearm and unlawfully damaging property and three related charges.
He was sentenced to five years’ jail, backdated to June 28 last year, with a non-parole period of three years.
The court heard a female patron suffered a graze to her leg from what Justice Brett inferred was a bullet fragment.
SAMUEL JOSEPH BARWICK
A Tasmanian gym enthusiast had to fork out almost $20,000 in fines and court costs after attempting to smuggle a ‘small pharmacy’ of steroids into Australia from Thailand.
FIFO worker, Samuel Joseph Barwick, was searched by Australian Border Force officers when he returned to Perth on a flight from Malaysia on 10 July, 2019.
An x-ray of Barwick’s baggage showed anomalies and when officers conducted a physical examination they hundreds of tablets and vials of steroids, including 39 one ml ampoules in boxes labelled ‘Testobolin – Testosterone Enanthate’, 75 oxandrolone tablets in a box labelled “Oxanobol”, 328 oxandrolone tablets in a box labelled “Anavar”, 70 stanozolol tablets in a bottle labelled “Stano M10”, 150 stanozolol tablets in a box labelled “Stanztab 10” and two 10ml vials of nandrolone decanoate labelled “Nandrobolin-250”.
The Australian Border Force said Barwick declared he did not have any “goods that may be prohibited or subject to restrictions, such as medicines or steroids” but later admitted to purchasing the steroids from a pharmacy in Thailand, claiming they were for personal use.
Investigators charged Barwick with two offences, and after pleading guilty he was sentenced in the Perth Magistrates Court on August 13 for one count of importing prohibited imports resulting in an $11,000 fine, and one count of making a false or misleading statement to an officer, resulting in a $4,000 fine.
Barwick was also ordered to pay the prosecution’s costs of $4,733, taking the total penalty to $19,733.
The magistrate also rejected an application by the man’s lawyer for a spent conviction after the Commonwealth’s lawyer argued the offending was not “trivial”.
JESSE PETER BARNES
A Tasmanian man who bought testosterone to build muscle, among a range of other drugs, on the dark web narrowly escaped a jail sentence in 2017.
The Supreme Court in Launceston heard Jesse Peter Barnes, 27, pleaded guilty to trafficking in a controlled substance and four summary charges under the Misuse of Drugs Act and Poisons Act.
The court heard between April 2016 and March 2017 Barnes used the dark web — a section of the internet accessible using special software — to buy drugs for himself and others using the digital currency, Bitcoin.
The drugs were sent from within Australia and four parcels were intercepted by the police.
One parcel contained 30.19 grams of ice.
Barnes admitted to the purchase and sales, not only of more ice, but also LSD tablets, MDMA and testosterone.
Three times in 2016, he bought MDMA, and after the third occasion, sold about 40 pills for about $20 each through a social media app, the court heard.
It was revealed in court that he injected some of the testosterone himself for muscle building, but also sold four vials to a friend.
Barnes had no previous convictions and said he developed a recreational drug habit working in mines interstate.
Justice Robert Pearce acknowledged Barnes had taken steps to rehabilitate himself, but said he had acted in a “highly stupid and irresponsible” manner.
“Resorting to [the] purchase of drugs by means of the secret internet is to be condemned,” he said.
“The nature and scale of this trafficking, and the other offences, does not warrant imprisonment — the quantity and value involved is not high.
“However, distribution of controlled drugs is always serious and sentences should not only punish the offender and condemn his conduct, but serve to protect the community from activities like this by him and others.
“He cannot expect a second chance.”
Barnes was fined $2000 and ordered to perform 84 hours of community service.
RONALD JAMES LAYCOCK
A FORMER Olympic weightlifter, originally from Tasmania before moving to New South Wales, Ettalong Beach was sentenced to seven years for supplying drugs on the NSW Central Coast.
Ronald James Laycock – who won gold and bronze medals for Australia in the 1980s and ’90s – pleaded guilty to nine counts of supplying prohibited drugs and two charges of being in possession of an unauthorised firearm and ammunition.
The father-of-three competed in the 1998 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Olympics, was arrested in Woy Woy last June 2014.
Laycock supplied an undercover officer with cocaine and crystal meth several times between April and June that year.
He was in possession of cannabis, 378g of crystal meth, 33 ecstasy tablets and a shotgun.
At Mr Laycock’s last appearance the court heard that at the time of his arrest in June he was on ice but had not abused the drug since being in prison.
It was also stated in court that Mr Laycock was on welfare at the time of the offending and was considered a key figure in the “well-organised drug trade’’.
The court heard Laycock left home at 16 for the Australian Institute of Sport to begin weightlifting training.
He lifted in the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, and won bronze, silver and gold for Australia in the Commonwealth Games.
His downward spiral into a life of crime most likely began when he left the sport in 1993 after a two-year ban for steroid use.
Laycock told the court he started using amphetamines and steroids at the Australian Institute of Sport as early as age 17.
The court heard after his ban from weightlifting in the early 90s, he drank heavily until 2010 when before stopping to care for his three children.
YARDA BRIAN BROUCEK
AN interstate man and self-described gym junkie who squeezed his then partner’s throat in what a judge called “violent, threatening and domineering” attack on a cruise ship was jailed in Tasmania in 2019.
Yarda Brian Broucek, 26, previously pleaded guilty to assaulting his partner on-board a cruise ship on December 15.
Justice Gregory Geason sentenced Broucek in the Supreme Court in Hobart only days before Coroner Olivia McTaggart called for a separate crime of strangulation to be enacted in Tasmania.
Justice Geason said the offender and his partner joined a cruise in Sydney with his partner’s brother and his partner.
The court heard his victim had concerns Broucek was cheating on her with another female passenger and confronted him about it, when he snapped.
Justice Geason said the offender then “pushed her onto the bed and you jumped on top of her”.
“You grabbed her by the throat with one hand and you punched her to the face with a closed fist with the other,” he said.
He said Broucek punched the woman a five more times, pinning her down so she was unable to fight back.
“You then grabbed her around the throat using both hands and you squeezed her throat. While you held her she managed to say, ‘go on, kill me then’,” Justice Geason said.
“She stopped resisting and she went limp. You immediately desisted. You started crying.”
The court heard when the woman eventually woke up, she left the cabin and screamed for help before medical staff came to her aid.
The top half of her dress was ripped off, her face was swollen and blood was located through the cabin, on the pillows and in the bed sheets, according to Justice Geason.
Broucek was arrested when the ship docked in Burnie.
Boucek had made anger management sessions and it was accepted by the court that the attack was out of character but Justice Geason said domestic violence was “a matter of grave community concern”.
“At the time of the offending you were a self-described “gym junkie” and this explains your possession of the steroid drugs,” he said.
“Your behaviour was violent, threatening and domineering and it is clear from the comment made by your victim that she felt vulnerable to the point where she feared for her life whilst you were throttling and striking her,” he said.
Broucek was sentenced to 10 months’ jail, with eight months suspended for three years.
O’Byrne pulls plug on support for Ferguson, says Premier must act
The survival of key Liberal Michael Ferguson hangs by a thread after key independent David O’Byrne declared he had lost confidence in the beleaguered Treasurer and Deputy Premier. What Mr O’Byrne said >>
World-leading program which has reduced dementia risk by 25%
A five-year dementia study run out of UTAS is showing drops of 25 per cent in the dementia risk of its study participants. Here is what they are doing to stay healthier for longer.