A LIFE SPENT FIGHTING HEROIN, ONLY TO FALL BY THE WAYSIDE

Trevor Monaghan's Life Was A Series Of Ups And Downs

Fifty years ago, Jim Monaghan used the headlights of his car in his
home town to train the "Lithgow Flash" Marjorie Jackson on her way to
a gold medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

Nine days ago, on the night of Thursday, May 13, another Monaghan made
his way tragically into the spotlight when Jim's grandson Trevor
Monaghan, 40, of Nambucca Heads on the North Coast, died of a heroin
overdose at the Wayside Chapel toilets.

It was the day after a controversial injecting room at the chapel was
raided by police and its operation suspended, and in the week before
the Drug Summit. For that reason it received the sort of publicity
such a death would not normally attract.

Mr Monaghan left behind a wife, Barbara, and two primary school-age
children.

A man who called himself a friend and "counsellor", Mr John Gibson,
the owner of the Cut-Price supermarket at which Mr Monaghan shopped,
said the greatest tragedy about Mr Monaghan's death was he had been
off drugs for six months.

"He wasn't the no-hoper deadshit druggo," Mr Gibson
said.

"He was a bloke with problems and wasn't coping as well as he'd
liked."

Mr Gibson described Mr Monaghan's life as a series of ups and downs:
one day, he would have a new job and his life back on track. He would
then encounter problems and lose his way again.

In fact, he had spent up to half his life trying to fight his way out
of heroin. He spent time in methadone clinics on the North Coast and
in his home town of Lithgow.

About four years ago, distressed with his problems, he joined the
Jehovah's Witness faith in Nambucca Heads, where he was baptised. For
about two years, other churchgoers believed he was clean.

But less than a year ago, unable to give up smoking and other
addictions, he "disfellowed" himself from the church.

In January 1998, after working at other paint shops, Mr Monaghan, a
spraypainter by trade, took up employment with Nambucca Riverside Motors.

One of the managers, Ms Vicki Ryder, praised Mr Monaghan but said he
was unreliable. Asked about his prowess as a spraypainter, she said:
"Excellent, excellent: he was the best.

"Very proud of his ability to paint a car and not ever have to buff
it.

"[But] he would ring us and tell us he had problems with his children
and he couldn't get his little boy to school ... so [he] wouldn't turn
up for work."

It was true, according to Mr Gibson, that Mr Monaghan was having
problems at home. His son had a learning disability and his daughter,
Candy, had a physical disability with her leg.

But for Vicki Ryder, the absences were becoming too
frequent.

She said she had not sacked Mr Monaghan because she was employing him
casually. But he hadn't worked with the company since March.

He also admitted to a previous alcohol problem.

In the end, it was financial problems which brought Trevor Monaghan to
Sydney last week to get work on damaged cars in the wake of Sydney's
April 14 hailstorm.

But, Mr Gibson said, things didn't work out.

Mr Monaghan found difficulty getting accommodation.

He rang his wife, Barbara, asking to come home.

But she encouraged him to stay - because they needed the money - and
found him a refuge to stay in, Mr Gibson said.

The next day he was dead.

According to police, on the Thursday Mr Monaghan met a tourist at an
East Sydney hotel.

About 5.30pm, Mr Monaghan mistook the 24-year-old Irishman for a
methadone user and the pair struck up a conversation about heroin use.

The tourist told police in a statement he had never tried heroin
before and was invited by Mr Monaghan to experience a hit.

They walked to Springfield Mall where Mr Monaghan purchased a $50 cap
of heroin and was told by the drug dealer that if he wanted to avoid
police the safest place to inject was at the Wayside Chapel.

But when the two men could not enter the chapel's controversial safe
injecting room, they went to a toilet cubicle inside at 9.30pm.

The tourist said Mr Monaghan had injected him with a small amount of
heroin and then, while kneeling, he injected the rest of the heroin
into his own arm.

When Mr Monaghan failed to stand up, the Irishman realised something
was wrong and screamed for help.

News of Mr Monaghan's death last week shocked his old workmates and
church friends.

In Lithgow, where an athletic field is named after Jim Monaghan and
his deeds in training Marjorie Jackson live on, some of Mr Monaghan's
family closed ranks this week, wanting to keep their grief to themselves.

His funeral was at Eastern Creek on Wednesday.