Face of Nation : Fallen AFL legend Mark “Bomber” Thompson says he used drugs to mask his pain after the Essendon supplements scandal left him ruined.
The 55-year-old is fighting drug trafficking and possession charges after a raid on his Port Melbourne home last year.
He admitted he started smoking ice several times a week in late 2017 to cope with the loss of his career and fallout from the doping saga, which rocked the league.
“I’m a drug taker and I’m sad that I’m a drug taker … I took drugs back then to mask all the pain,” he told Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
He said everything he believed about the AFL and the industry was left in ruins when in August 2013 he was one of four people, plus the club, charged by the league with bringing the game into disrepute.
“I couldn’t believe we could do that to a group of young men,” he said of the scandal.
The raid on Thompson’s home in January last year uncovered 481 MDA tablets in a bag, kept in a locked room connected to his bedroom.
A lock box containing ice, Xanax and an LSD tab was also found, along with equipment including scales.
He is fighting three drug trafficking charges and four of possession.
It was embarrassing to be labelled a drug trafficker, Thompson told the court, adding that he never had any intention to sell drugs.
“To be here right now it’s pretty soul crushing,” he said.
His lawyer argued Thompson had $3 million in the bank at the time and was making money trading cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin.
“It makes no sense, why a man of his public profile would engage in such activity,” Peter Matthews said.
The ex-player and coach had also made a profit on the sale of a Geelong property, court documents show.
Thompson’s legal team pinned the blame for the drugs on his former room mate, Thomas Windsor.
The pair met when Windsor knocked on the former premiership player’s door in September 2017.
“I was happy to open the door and talk to someone,” Thompson said.
Despite the heavily tattooed, muscled and bald Windsor showing up unannounced, Thompson allowed him inside.
“Yeah … it’s weird, hey?” he told the court.
The friendship continued and the pair smoked ice together.
But Thompson claims he became scared of Windsor, who has since been jailed for drug trafficking after he was arrested following the raid on the ex-footballer’s home.
He claimed he stored the drugs in his home at Windsor’s bidding but admitted an LSD tab and Xanax belonged to him.
Forensic expert Janette Psaroudis earlier told the court she tested plastic bags containing drugs and cigarette butts taken from the property.
DNA from the items was 100 billion times more likely to belong to Thompson than anyone else, she said.
The former star footballer played in three flags with Essendon and coached Geelong to two premierships.
He was supported in court by family.
Thompson will return to court to learn his fate on the drugs charges in two weeks.
