HEROIN DOWNFALL

AT 10 Renee Connolly came to Newcastle swimming coach Shane Arnold with a
precocious talent.

Six years later she was ready to compete on the world stage. Already a
national champion, many coaches described her as one of the most complete
backstrokers they had seen. It seemed a formality she would go on to
international success, if not at the Atlanta Olympics (she finished fourth
in the trials) in 1996, then certainly in Sydney.

Instead, last June when the Australian Olympic team were just weeks away
from Games glory, Connolly was arrested in Cabramatta, a passenger in a
stolen car, and already relying on petty crime to finance a $300 to $400 a
week heroin habit.

Her seemingly limitless potential was dulled from the day the then
17-year-old left her parents' Newcastle home and shifted to the central coast.

Connolly became involved with the wrong crowd and eventually began taking
drugs.

When arrested in Cabramatta she was charged with stealing a handbag from a
Newcastle restaurant and following her arrest, a set of keys to the
Wallsend police station.

In October last year, Connolly attempted on three occasions to cash a
stolen cheque in Newcastle.

When police were called she admitted the cheques weren't hers and she and
three other people had intended to get some money to buy heroin.

At that time the judicial system gave Connolly another chance. She was
granted bail on condition she attended a drug rehabilitation centre.

Seven weeks into that course, she tested positive to a drug test and was
expelled from the centre. Bail was revoked and arrest warrants issued.

When she attended Newcastle Local Court with her mother Judith yesterday,
to be sentenced for the three stealing charges and others related to the
cheques, a jail term was a real possibility.

Barrister Andrew Bright told the court Connolly had a full-time job as a
receptionist and had at least completed seven weeks of her rehabilitation
before she was asked to leave.

Magistrate Mick Morahan asked if Connolly had a drug problem.

"I think she will always have a drug problem for the rest of her days."

Mr Morahan said he had tried everything to help Connolly but "she refuses
to co-operate".

However, he was prepared to give her another chance, to have a further
pre-sentence report prepared before he finalised the matter.

He adjourned the sentencing until May 29.