A bodybuilder who turned her wonderful life “into a mangled wreck of an existence” has walked free after pleading guilty to drug charges.
Samantha Jane Heron was a high achiever who excelled in athletics before going on to compete overseas in world champion body-sculpting events.
She had amassed a following of more than 7000 people on Instagram.
At least until the age of 25 Heron was – as described by her mother – “always on top of everything”.
But while living on the Gold Coast the now 32-year-old started using drugs recreationally, not knowing what was in the pills, and got hooked on meth, defence barrister Martin Longhurst told the Queensland Supreme Court on Wednesday.
He said a letter from Heron’s mother provided to the court described her daughter’s “shocking decline”.
Longhurst said Heron had continued functioning in society from 2014 until about 2017 when the addiction got the better of her.
“She found herself heavily involved with the drug, using up to 0.5g a day,” he added.
Desperate for money, Heron sold her car to associates who asked her to hold drugs while waiting for them to come up with the cash.
She was arrested in June 2019 when she attended “an associate’s house” to return the drugs shortly before police arrived to search the property.
The court heard she had between 13g and 15g each of four drugs including pure methylamphetamine and pure cocaine.
“Drugs, and in particular those drugs in the amphetamine family, can turn a wonderful life, like the one you had, into a mangled wreck of an existence,” Justice Peter Callaghan said in handing down Heron’s sentence.
“That is why the courts take a particularly strong stand against those who have contact with drugs in a way that might see them distributed to others.”
He said Heron wasn’t dealing in a conventional sense.
“(But) the things that you did (meant) the drugs you were handling were going to be spread and that means that the misery that they cause was going to be spread as well,” Callaghan added.
Now working as a commercial cleaner, Heron pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing a commercial quantity of drugs and one count of unlawfully possessing a drug.
She has previously been fined for minor drug-related offences.
Heron was sentenced to a head sentence of three years in prison, but released on immediate parole.