Olympic gold medallist Chantelle Newbery has had sentencing on 19 alleged drug-related and driving offences adjourned after her lawyer told Brisbane Magistrates Court he had been unable to meet her before the hearing.
Newbery, 49, was arrested on August 25 and remains in custody after being held at a Brisbane watch house before being transferred to a women’s prison.
Wearing a white Puma T-shirt and grey tracksuit trousers, the former diving champion stood silently in court as solicitor Robert Burns made the application on Thursday.
Mr Burns said he had represented Newbery on several previous occasions, but she had represented herself after her arrest. He told the court he had only spoken to her briefly that morning.
“She was held in a watch house in Brisbane for some days until she was transferred to the women’s prison, so I’ve not been able to secure a conference with her,” he said.
“I spoke with her briefly this morning … she’s anxious to have the matter dealt with.”
No bail application was made and Newbery was taken back into custody after the case was adjourned. The matter is due to return to court on October 1.
She has not entered a plea to charges including possessing drugs, pipes or other utensils, stealing, driving under the influence, failing to appear in court and driving without a licence.
She is also accused of possessing property suspected of being connected with a drug offence and unlawfully possessing a relevant substance.
Lawyer says Olympic champion had been rebuilding her life
Outside court, Mr Burns said Newbery had made “good progress” since drug charges brought her back into the headlines three years ago.
He said she now had an income, a fixed address and family support, and described her as “quite saddened and disappointed” by being charged and remanded over allegations dating from about a year earlier.
“Because she’s been making good progress – if she hadn’t, I wouldn’t continue to be looking after her,” he said.
Newbery struggled with addiction after her sporting career and has previously been jailed for theft and drug charges dating back 12 years.
Before 2023, she asked Mr Burns to keep her medals for safekeeping because she feared former drug associates would steal them. He continues to hold three gold, four silver and two bronze medals won at the Olympic and Commonwealth Games and World Aquatics Championships between 1998 and 2006.
Mr Burns said her achievements were part of the reason he believed she could be rehabilitated.
“Chantelle worked very, very hard to achieve what she did for this country,” he said. “She represented the country at the highest level, and she achieved what nobody else before her had been able to do.”
Newbery won Australia’s first female Olympic diving gold medal at the 2004 Athens Games. She later said the end of an Olympic career could be difficult for athletes to cope with.
“A lot of athletes struggle after the Olympics,” she said in 2014. “You’re working your whole life towards a goal and then whether you achieve that goal or you don’t, it comes to an end.”
Mr Burns said Newbery had found it difficult to break away from the life she had fallen into, but believed she remained capable of rehabilitation.
“It became evident that she wasn’t getting the support that she needed – she needed help, and she needed stability,” he previously said. “She’s a good person with a heart of gold.”
