Olympic swimmer’s descent into drug world started with failed marriage to TV star

Olympic swimmer Scott Miller has revealed how his marriage to Charlotte Dawson exposed him to a life of drug abuse.

Miller and Dawson, a beloved TV star, married in 1999 and were a golden couple of Australia’s media elite.

However their marriage ended just a year later after Miller’s drug addiction spiraled and he was caught having sex in a public bathroom with an unidentified woman.

Dawson later said that her failed marriage was one of the triggers for her crippling depression and she tragically took her own life in 2014.

Now Miller, who was handed another jail term Friday for serious drug supply offenses, has confessed that it was his wife’s connections that introduced him to a life of drug taking.

In an affidavit to Downing Centre District Court, Miller detailed his descent into the drug world, the Daily Telegraph reported.

“Charlotte was engaged in the fashion and media industry and it was in the context of my exposure to the lifestyle that my wife’s social and employment connections afforded that I was first introduced to personal drug use,” Miller wrote.

“Whilst it was not significant I realize in retrospect that it was (the) start on my long and disastrous involvement with drug abuse.”

The butterfly champion, 49, was labeled a “trusted senior member” of a Sydney meth ring in court and sentenced to more than four years in prison for supplying 504g of the drug in 2020.

But with time served, Miller’s non-parole period will expire on May 16 – meaning he could be released under supervision three years after his arrest.

The Downing Centre District Court heard that correctives staff believed the father would receive no benefit from further incarceration, and described him as a “model prisoner”.

Members of Miller’s family broke down in tears as his sentence was delivered by Judge Andrew Scotting, and they realized he could soon be back home.

The court heard how Miller was committed to turning his life around, and that he had felt “abandoned by his sport” after his career ended due to form and injuries in 2004.

Appearing in court via video link, Miller looked trim and sported a shaved head. He waved to family through the screen before the hearing began.

Miller was arrested in February 2021 after an extensive police investigation into a drug supply syndicate led them to his home.

The court heard he had “intimate knowledge” of the racket operating out of an inner west safe house, which he had a key for, and moved half a kilo of drugs himself.

Miller used codenames such as “Joker”, “IQ” and “Con” to chat with co-offenders on encrypted apps, and was part of discussions about drug supply plans.

A ledger found in a Sydney storage shed rented by one person involved in the ring revealed “Joker” – or Miller – made $120,000 in profit out of the illegal activities.

Miller pleaded guilty to one count of supplying a large commercial quantity of illegal drugs and asked for another charge of participating in a criminal group to be taken into account on sentence.

Judge Scotting imposed a maximum sentence of four years and three months, with a one year non-parole period, backdated to May 2023.

“He has unequivocally and powerfully accepted responsibility for his actions,” the judge said.

In evidence tendered to the court, his lawyers detailed how a series of personal setbacks led Miller, a one-time golden boy of the pool, towards his stint as a drug dealer.

Miller cites his failure to win gold at the 1996 Atlanta games as a “pivotal moment” in his life, the court heard, and afterwards his form and mental state took a downward turn.

He claims he was introduced to drugs by his late wife’s social circle, but his escalating use led to the breakdown of their marriage.

After retiring from swimming, Miller’s parents re-mortgaged their home so he could start a venture under the Rudd government’s ill-fated pink batts insulation scheme in 2008, which ended in disaster.

The court heard he still felt immense guilt over the financial position his parents were left in by that business’ failure.

Then Miller’s late hours running an escort agency led him to relapse on using meth and he was convicted of drug possession in 2013.

Years later, he started a truck hire business that was foiled by the outbreak of COVID-19.

Judge Scotting said Miller told a psychologist he began using drugs again to “cope with the stress of his declining business”.

Court documents state Miller has reflected on a happy and loving childhood, however, he felt betrayed by a sport he left home to dedicate his life to from the age of 16.

“He thought when it was over (his career) they turned their backs on him, leaving him damaged with no life skills and no education,” Judge Scotting told the court.

Miller was sentenced in 2022 to five years and six months’ jail in late 2022 for a series of separate charges related to the same investigation.

The 49-year-old completed the non-parole period of that sentence in February this year but was unable to be released while he awaited sentence for the charges he faced on Friday.

A decision on Miller’s possible parole would be made by the NSW State Parole Authority.