Ex-boxing champ guilty after prints found on meth bags in washing machine (original) (raw)

Former world boxing champion Michael Katsidis has been sentenced to two years’ jail but walked free on immediate parole after he was linked to more than 30 bags of methamphetamine hidden inside a washing machine.

Katsidis, 41, pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Tuesday to possessing methamphetamine at Browns Plains, south of Brisbane, in 2019.

Michael Katsidis outside court in Brisbane after his sentencing. Credit: Cloe Read

The court heard police raided a Browns Plains home for a man named Luke Bradstock, where they found 34 plastic freezer bags of methamphetamine hidden inside a washing machine.

The bags totalled more than 900 grams.

Several people were said to be staying at the home in the lead-up to the search, including Katsidis.

Crown prosecutor Ronald Swanick said Katsidis’ fingerprints were found on seven of the bags.

Katsidis during his heyday as a professional boxer.Credit: LEON NEAL

He said 32 of the bags were found hidden inside the machine’s agitator, and two were under clothes in the washing machine.

The court heard Toowoomba-born Katsidis, who was a 2000 Sydney Olympian and known for his Las Vegas blockbuster fight with Mexican great Juan Manuel Marquez in 2010, had a criminal history.

Defence barrister Wayne Tolton asked Justice Jean Dalton to consider a three-year term of imprisonment for Katsidis, but that he be released on parole immediately.

Mr Tolton said Katsidis turned to drugs after the death of his brother Stathi, a champion Australian jockey.

A young Stathi Katsidis, front, with his brother Michael in Toowoomba, 2000.Credit: Angela Wylie

“In 2010, Stathi died of a drug overdose. The reasons drugs became a problem in the Katsidis household was because in 1992, Michael and Stathi’s father turned to drugs after their cousin shot dead their mother and father in Sydney,” Mr Tolton said.

“Their father turned to drugs and some time later Stathi succumbed to the same problem.

“In 2010, he [Michael] was in Las Vegas, he was preparing for a very big boxing match, and he was informed of his brother’s drug overdose.”

He said Katsidis, a high-ranking boxer who represented Australian on a global stage, was “extremely close” with his brother.

“He subsequently lost that fight and whatever happened in his boxing career crumbled after that,” Mr Tolton said.

Justice Dalton said while the Crown had identified Katsidis’ fingerprints on seven of the bags, it could not prove several factors, including if he owned the drugs, was assisting Bradstock with warehousing the drugs, or packing or preparing the methamphetamine.

She said his circumstances of possession were “most unusual”.

“I think when the Crown can prove no more than that at one stage you picked up the bags containing drugs, the sentence I impose should reflect that very low level of criminality,” she said.

Bradstock had already been sentenced in relation to the drugs.

Outside court, Katsidis said he had turned his life around and support and services were out there for those suffering with drugs.

“If I can go to the places I think I can go, this is going to be nothing but a speed bump in my life,” he said.

“I’m going to really progress forward ... business ideas are opening up just because I have got my gratitude and my recovery, and I’m so thankful for it.”