Pubdate: Sun, 23 May 1999 Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) Contact: http://www.smh.com.au/ Author: Andrew Clennell and Les Kennedy 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea