Chantelle Newbery: One time Olympic golden girl faces fresh syringe and driving related charges – after stealing food from Woolworths

Chantelle Newbery, former Olympic gold girl, has been hit with a raft of new criminal charges, including being caught by police with a syringe in a suburban shopping mall.

Daily Mail Australia can reveal that the former diving champion, 46, has appeared in court in Queensland eight times since January, when she appeared before a magistrate for stealing food from a Woolworths in Toowoomba.

Newbery – once Australia’s toast when she won the first diving gold in 80 years at the 2004 Athens Games, as well as bronze – failed to appear in court in Ipswich on August 9.

She was supposed to be there to face charges for failing to take reasonable care and precautions with a syringe or needle at Redbank Plaza, near her grandmother’s flat in southwest Brisbane, on June 19.

The 46-year-old, who struggles with ice cream addiction, also faced Brisbane Magistrates Court on August 2 on a drug-related charge. The case was postponed to September 15.

Newbery was also charged in December with unlawful use of a motor vehicle, for which her name appeared five times on the list of the Toowoomba Magistrate’s Court between February 15 and August 4. She has not filed a plea.

The legal dramas come almost exactly 19 years after her Olympic success.

The syringe charge is part of the Drug Misuse Act and carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

If she does not attend her next court hearing on September 6, an arrest warrant could be issued against her.

The new charge marks the latest sad chapter in Newbery’s fall from grace, since she stepped onto the top step of the podium in Athens and kissed her gold medal while wearing an olive leaf crown.

In January, she told the Toowoomba Magistrates Court that she filled a bag of groceries at a local Woolworths, as she was at her sister’s house where there was “no food or money”.

Newbery was sentenced to eight months in prison for robbery in a previous conviction, but was immediately released on parole.

At the time, she lived with her two-year-old niece in a granny flat behind a small rented house.

In 2021, she was caught possessing an ice pipe hidden in her sunglasses case when she was apprehended for shoplifting $113 worth of groceries from Woolworths and $150 of bedding from Target.

The mother-of-two was also previously caught driving without a license, breaking her probation and misusing a vehicle.

According to court documents, Newbery tried to get help for her mental health and addiction issues, but ultimately decided that doctors couldn’t help her.

She was eventually excluded from an addiction recovery program for failing to collect suboxone, a prescription drug used to treat opioid addiction, and later tested positive for methamphetamine, amphetamine, and buprenorphine.

In 2014, she appeared in Cleveland Magistrate’s Court for possession of dangerous drugs and failing to properly dispose of a needle and syringe.

She then appeared before the Brisbane Magistrate’s Court in 2015 for unauthorized handling of retail items – meaning consuming goods in a shop without paying, or altering a price tag in the shop.

In 2016, she violated a domestic violence warrant and was fined $600. She also violated bail, committed burglary, and used a vehicle unlawfully.

Then in 2019, she was struck by two personal tragedies: the death of her close friend Jason Guise, and then her partner Tim Walsh two months later.

Newbery became the first Australian diver to win an Olympic medal in 80 years when she won gold in the 10m platform at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

She also won two gold and three silver medals at the 1998 and 2006 Commonwealth Games.

She later received an OAM and was honored at the Australian Institute of Sports Awards, ‘Best of the Best’.

Newbery’s struggles began months after her third Beijing Olympics in 2008, where she failed to recapture her previous success.

She told Woman’s Day magazine in 2009 that she had admitted herself to a mental hospital because of chronic depression.

She also attempted suicide twice.

In A Current Affair in 2014, Newbery spoke of her struggle to be a good mother to her children after her marriage to fellow diving champion Robert Newbery failed.

Newbery previously admitted that winning gold in Athens was the greatest moment of her life, but coping with post-Olympic blues was difficult.

“A lot of athletes are struggling after the Olympics,” Newbery said.

“You work your whole life towards a goal and whether you reach that goal or not, it comes to an end.

“It’s a big change in your life and I think we all struggle with it.”