New start for young man after shaking $1700-a-day drug habit

“I expected to go to jail today.

“But I won’t let down my mother now – or the magistrate – or, most of all, myself.”

Weekes-Brooke, of Darwin Street, Beresfield, had pleaded guilty to breaching a bond regarding drug matters and possessing an offensive weapon, a nunchukka.

He was fined $300 for having the nunchukka and placed on two bonds for 18 months for the previous breaches.

Solicitor Julia Clarke told the court: “He was on a $1700-a-day drug habit at the age of 19.

“But he has put a 110 per cent effort into his recovery and he is much better.

“Staying clean is the main focus in his life.”

Sentencing Weekes-Brooke, Ms Crews told him: “As a 19-year-old, you had been using a whole range of drugs over four years and you made your mum’s life hell.

“Now you are a young man well on the road to rehabilitation.

“This will be a particular challenge for you, because we all know how readily available drugs are in this city.

“I have every confidence in the efforts you are making.”

Outside court, Weekes-Brooke hugged his mum and thanked her for her support.

“I first tried crystal meth when I was 15 and it nearly destroyed my life,” he told the Mercury.

“I mixed with the wrong people for the wrong reasons and I didn’t care about anyone.”

Asked how he raised $1700 every day to buy drugs, Weekes-Brooke said: “I did anything – mostly selling drugs. Lots of crimes involve drugs.”

He said he would not have recovered had it not been for his mother and the rehabilitation programs made available to him.

“It was important for me to hate drugs – but not to hate my kid,” Mrs Weekes-Brooke said.

“This has been an extremely hard time for both of us and my son had to want to get well for himself.

“I always knew he was a lovely boy who had been overtaken by a monster and that one day my lovely boy might come back.”

She also paid tribute to a group called The Addict’s Mum who had helped her.