Fallen football star Ben Cousins screamed and cried after he was refused bail during a traumatic court appearance on Wednesday afternoon.
An emotional Cousins pleaded with a magistrate to let him walk free, just hours after he was arrested in Perth and charged with 16 offences relating to drugs, breaching a restraining order and threatening to injure or endanger a person.
During his appearance in the Armadale Magistrates Court, a distraught Cousins told his lawyer: ‘I can’t go back (to jail)’.
But the AFL champion could be heard screaming and crying as guards led him from the courtroom as bail was officially refused.
Earlier, the court had heard allegations that police had discovered 13 grams of meth hidden in a plastic bag lodged in Cousins’ anus.
Fallen football star Ben Cousins screamed and cried after he was refused bail during a court appearance on Wednesday. (Pictured: One of the last known photos of Cousins, posing with a fan on the streets of Perth in early August)
The AFL champion (pictured) is facing 16 charges relating to drug offences, breaching an AVO and threats to injure or endanger
During his appearance in the Armadale Magistrates Court, the court heard allegations that in custody on Tuesday night police found 14 grams of methylamphetamine hidden in a plastic bag lodged in Cousins’ anus
When officers asked Cousins to remove the bag he agreed before allegedly trying to push it further into his anus. He later had to be taken to hospital to have it surgically removed.
Speaking during his court appearance, the tearful father-of-two claimed he was ‘not a threat’ to anyone and revealed how he missed his children.
‘I am the victim in this. To be the subject of ridicule and embarrassment, and I know I’ve brought a lot of that on myself, but I don’t act out in violence,’ Cousins said.
‘I beg you I beg you I’m not a threat. Every day I close my eyes when the sun goes down and I spew that it’s another day I’m not going to be with my children.
‘Someone in my situation, you should use it as an example of hope, that things will work out. Not the opposite.’
Just weeks earlier Cousins had happily posed for photos with football fans on Perth’s streets.
Among them was an Uber driver who was apparently such a major fan of the football star that he allowed him to ride for free.
It comes as police revealed Cousins had been homeless in recent times.
A prison van carrying Cousins arrives at Armadale Magistrates Court on Wednesday morning
Cousins is due before the court (pictured) on Wednesday, charged with several drug offences, breaching a restraining order and threats to injure, endanger of harm a person
WA Police said in a statement: ‘Around 6:12 last night, a man was taken into custody by police at a house in Canning Vale in relation to another matter.
‘It will be alleged that while in custody, officers searched the man and 13 grams of methylamphetamine was located.
‘A 40-year-old man of no fixed address has been charged with possession of a prohibited drug with intent to sell or supply, threats to injure, endanger or harm any person, two counts of beached family violence restraining order or violence restraining order.’
Cousins has been held in custody and is due to face Armadale Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
In January this year Cousins was released from prison after serving 10 months of the one-year sentence he received for breaching a restraining order taken out by his partner.
Police also revealed that Cousins (pictured) had been homeless in recent times, despite being bailed to the home of his parents after his release from jail
‘I’m a drug addict, just flat-out. Yeah, I was drug-f**ked,’ Cousins said in a 2010 documentary on his life
After his release from jail Cousins was offered a job working with his former club the West Coast Eagles in a ‘community and game development’ role.
But it was revealed in May that he was no longer in the role, after reportedly failing to turn up for work on multiple occasions.
Cousins has previously spoken in depth about his struggles with drug addiction, and in a 2010 documentary revealed the extent to which he used drugs during his career.
‘I’m a drug addict, just flat-out. Yeah, I was drug-f**ked,’ Cousins said.
‘It was fast, it was good. They were good times. Alcohol wasn’t the big thing for me at the time. It was all about drugs for me.
‘I wouldn’t have butter on my toast, let alone a truck load of beer… (but) I’d take drugs and I would train and f***king train and obsess and play good footy.
‘I knew that at the end of that one week block, two week block or sometimes on the month, I would start to absolutely annihilate and launch into as much drugs as I could.’
The former winner of the Brownlow Medal – the highest individual honour in the AFL – retired from the sport in 2010.
THE TROUBLED LIFE AND TIMES OF BEN COUSINS:
1996 – Makes AFL debut with West Coast and is named the league’s Rising Star
2001 – Named club captain of West Coast at age 23
2002 – Breaks his arm falling down a flight of stairs at a nightclub months after punching his teammate Daniel Kerr
2005 – (May) Is quizzed by police about association with underworld identities
– (September) Wins Brownlow medal as the AFL’s best and fairest player
2006 – (February) Swims across a Perth river to escape a booze bus
– (September) Wins AFL premiership with the Eagles
– (December) Is arrested after passing out in front of Melbourne’s Crown Casino and spends four hours in jail
Cousins after the 2006 AFL Grand Final
2007 – (March) Suspended by West Coast after missing training session
– (April) Goes to a drug rehabilitation facility in the US
– (October) Revealed to have visited fellow Eagles legend Chris Mainwaring twice on the night he died of a drug overdose
– (October) Arrested and charged with drug offences that are later dropped
– (November) Eventually sacked by West Coast and banned from the AFL for one year
2008 – AFL re-registers Cousins and he is signed by Richmond
2010 – Retires from the AFL but releases autobiography and documentary
2015 – Arrested three times before leading police on a slow-speed car chase
2016 – (June) Spotted behaving erratically and directing traffic on a highway
– (October) In and out of court over drug offences and breaches a restraining order taken out by his ex-partner
2017 – Jailed for one year for breaching restraining order by calling his ex-lover thousands of times
2018 – (January) Released from jail on parole just 10 months into his sentence
– (August) Arrested and charged with drug possession, and breaching restraining order
Source: AAP