Former Olympian Scott Miller, whose post-sport life unravelled into a failed drug-running plot, has opened up about the fear he felt while serving time in one of Australia’s most notorious prisons.
In November 2022, Miller was handed a maximum sentence of five-and-a-half years for his role in an attempt to move 4kg of methamphetamine, valued at $2.2million, from Sydney to Albury.
The plan to transport the drugs through NSW was badly exposed from the outset, with police surveilling, recording and, at times, physically tracking the operation as it unfolded.
Now aged 51, Miller details how his life descended from drug dependency into serious offending in the second episode of Deep End: The Scott Miller Story, airing Monday night on ABC TV.
‘Man, I really struggled,’ Miller says in the documentary. ‘The transition from being a sportsman to normal life was a disaster and man, I went straight to the dark side. I didn’t hesitate.’
Miller’s downfall ultimately led him to the Mid North Coast Correctional Centre (MNCCC), located 14km west of Kempsey and about 455km north of Sydney.
‘Kempsey, it was scary,’ Miller says. ‘It was a tough, tough prison. I did my whole time in maximum security.’
Former Olympian Scott Miller, pictured poolside recently, has spoken about the frightening period he spent inside one of Australia’s toughest prisons
Miller (above, shirtless) was sentenced to a maximum five-and-a-half years in jail in November 2022 over a shambolic scheme to smuggle 4kg of meth worth $2.2million from Sydney to Albury.
The end of the road came for Miller when he found himself at the Mid North Coast Correctional Centre (above), 14km west of Kempsey and 455km north of Sydney
The MNCCC is home to killers, gangsters and rapists, and some of its most dangerous occupants will never be released.
One inmate was stabbed and beaten so savagely at the MNCCC two months ago, he was left ‘unrecognisable’, according to his family.
Miller, who also won bronze in the 4x100m medley relay at Atlanta, says he did not fear prison when he was arrested over the bungled drug run at his Rozelle home in Sydney’s inner west on February 16, 2021.
A month earlier he had driven a Toyota Camry carrying the 4kg of meth about 280km from the city to Yass and handed over the consignment to a pair of bumbling accomplices for transport down to Albury.
The meth, concealed inside candles stashed in a hidden compartment of the Camry, was ditched more than 200km south of Yass after the accomplices were involved in a high-speed pursuit with police.
One of the mules had shot up drugs just before the police chase, and the other had only gone on the trip to keep his emotionally fragile friend company.
In the past, Miller had avoided jail when arrested for drug offences, but this time would be different.
He had begun taking drugs recreationally, which turned into a daily habit, then started selling to friends to fund a supply that would meet his own needs.
Miller discusses his life behind bars in episode two of Deep End: The Scott Miller Story, which airs on Monday night on ABC TV. He is pictured with his silver and bronze Olympic medals
Miller says he did not fear prison when he was arrested (above) over the bungled drug run at his Rozelle home in Sydney’s inner west on February 16, 2021
‘My late twenties, early thirties, I just kept getting deeper and deeper,’ he says in Deep End. ‘Cocaine, ecstasy, speed, heroin, crystal meth. That was the demon for me.’
Miller was arrested in April 2008 and received a two-year bond with 100 hours of community service for possessing a stolen pill press and supplying 12 ecstasy tablets to a mate.
In February 2014, Miller’s ex-wife, model and television personality Charlotte Dawson, who he had married in April 1999 and separated from in 2000, took her own life after battling depression.
Miller was arrested in both June and July 2014, resulting in a 12-month suspended sentence after he pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing meth and entered full-time rehab in Melbourne.
When Miller’s drug-running endeavour fell apart in February 2021, he knew he was looking at serious time in prison.
Police had been monitoring all his criminal communications and planted tracking devices to follow the drugs he was trying to ship from Sydney to Albury.
‘I can remember being in the back of the wagon going to the police station,’ he says in Deep End.
‘I remember looking out… watching the trees go by. I was just hypnotised by them, and I can remember having a wave of relief run through my body.
In February 2014, Miller’s ex-wife, model and television personality Charlotte Dawson took her own life after battling depression
Miller struggled outside the world of competitive swimming. He is pictured with the silver medal he won in the 100m butterfly at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics
‘I remember it so vividly, like, wow, and I’m thinking, what the hell am I feeling that for?
‘And I was just thinking, here we go. We’re going off to prison and this is going to be a long time. But thank God. I didn’t fear death. I didn’t fear prison. I didn’t fear anything.
‘I just wanted out. I was thinking, thank God for that. Thank God it’s over.’
A day after his arrest, Miller was taken from the cells at Surry Hills police station to Parklea Correctional Centre in Sydney’s north-west, then transferred to the MNCCC the following month.
The MNCCC has a reputation for taking inmates who have caused problems in other jails – the next stop for anyone who commits further offences there is Goulburn’s Supermax, the country’s most secure prison.
Islamic extremist Bourhan Hraichie used a razor to carve ‘E4E’ (eye for an eye) into the forehead of his new MNCCC cellmate, former soldier Michael O’Keefe, in April 2016.
Two-time killer Vester Fernando, who had already spent time in Supermax, was returned there after trying to murder another inmate at the MNCCC in April 2020.
In December that year, two MNCCC prisoners armed with makeshift weapons held an officer hostage for five hours as they demanded buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid addiction.
The Mid North Coast Correctional Centre is home to killers, gangsters and rapists, and some of its most dangerous occupants will never be released. Inmates at the jail are pictured
One inmate was stabbed and beaten so savagely at the Mid North Coast Correctional Centre (above) two months ago he was left ‘unrecognisable’, according to his family.
The officer was stabbed, punched until he lost vision and doused with cleaning fluid, which the inmates threatened to ignite. Both those inmates were shipped to Supermax.
When Daily Mail was given a tour of the MNCCC two years ago, governor Jack Reynolds used a saying he had to sum up difficult inmates who came into his custody from other jails.
‘We take everyone’s broken birds,’ Reynolds said. ‘But some people are an emu or a cassowary or an ostrich. They’ll never fly.’
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Miller was faced with a choice: become a junkie behind bars or completely stay off drugs and throw himself into physical training.
‘And I went the training route,’ he says. ‘I got healthy again… kicked all my bad habits.
‘I kind of thrived under a routine, going back to a regimented, institutionalised sort of system was right up my alley.
‘I’d done seven years in Canberra at the [Australian Institute of Sport], I was just used to it. I’m used to being told what to do and just following instructions.’
Nikki Miller uses the same comparison about her brother’s time in prison and his years at the AIS in the documentary.
Miller drove a Toyota Camry carrying 4kg of meth about 280km from the city to Yass and handed over the consignment to a pair of bumbling accomplices for transport down to Albury
The meth, stashed in a hidden compartment (above), was ditched more than 200km south of Yass after the accomplices were involved in a high-speed pursuit with police
This image shows one of the candles used to smuggle the $2.2million worth of meth. The drug was moulded into the candle’s glass shell
‘Talking to him on the phone when he was in jail he’s like, “They’re so similar”. The only difference between the AIS and jail was that jail didn’t have a pool.’
Miller never applied for bail and pleaded guilty in March 2022 to supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug, supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug and dealing with the proceeds of crime.
One of Miller’s greatest challenges in jail was coping with being separated from his son, Jack, who was just one when he went into rehab and is now a teenager.
‘It was very hard,’ he says in Deep End. ‘Had him on my wall. The pictures of him all on my wall. He was up there the whole time. Everyone saw him.’
Another concern was the health of his parents, Jenny and Barry.
‘I was always concerned with the situation at home,’ he says. ‘That was something that really worried me.
‘Dad was in his eighties and mum’s health was declining. I just really wanted to get out of prison when they were still alive.
‘No one wants to see their parents die while you’re in prison. You know what I mean? It was a horrible feeling and yeah, I thought about it a lot in there.’
Miller is pictured outside Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court in 2014 ahead of being sentenced for possessing meth
In April, Miller set a national record for the 50m butterfly for men aged 50 to 54 at the Masters Swimming Australia National Championships in Brisbane (above)
Miller, who now lives with his parents on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, agrees with his sister that he benefited from jail and it made him a better person.
‘A lot of people in my life think that prison saved my life,’ he says. ‘I think it too. I believe it.’
Miller was kept at the MNCCC until April 2022, when he was transferred briefly to the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater in Sydney’s west.
Later that month, he was shifted to Shortland Correctional Centre in Cessnock in the Hunter Valley, then to the adjoining Hunter Correctional Centre at the end of the year.
Miller was released on parole from Hunter Correctional Centre in June 2024 after serving three years and four months in jail. He got back into the pool in October 2025 for the first time in 15 years.
In April, he set a national record for the 50m butterfly for men aged 50 to 54 at the Masters Swimming Australia National Championships in Brisbane.
Miller has also begun telling his story to others, including addressing Electrical Trades Union apprentices in Melbourne as part of a workplace drug and alcohol awareness programme.
‘I’m not here to lecture you,’ he is shown in Deep End telling the apprentices.
‘I’m not here to scare you either, and I’m definitely not here to tell you how to live your lives. I’m here because for a long time I made decisions that looked logical at the time, but ended up costing me everything.
‘Prison life was never going to be easy, but that sentence didn’t destroy me. It saved me. If one of you avoid the decision you can’t undo because of this talk, then it’s done its job.’
Part two of Deep End: The Scott Miller Story airs at 8pm on Monday, June 29, on ABC TV and ABC iview.
