AFL great Dean Laidley will by most accounts walk free from jail on Monday into an absolute quagmire of public scrutiny.
To some degree it will be of his own making.
But his jailers can take most of the blame.
Police are investigating after photos of AFL great Dean Laidley in police custody (one pictured) were leaked online as he was charged with stalking and breaches of a family violence order
Dean Laidley in happier days while acting as a coach at Carlton in the AFL. Former Blues coach Mick Malthouse sdaid he was aware Laidley had health issues before his arrest
One photo which appeared to show his mugshot taken from a police file was also leaked
Ex-AFL footballers like Laidley are no strangers to Victoria’s court system.
Hardly a month goes by when a familiar name doesn’t pop up on a court list somewhere across Victoria.
They are not usually past AFL coaches, but some big names have walked the grimy halls of the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court before Laidley.
Think Mark ‘Bomber’ Thompson, who got embroiled in a drug scandal that involved a bunch of outlaw bikies.
Laidley faces seven charges, including one each of stalking, committing an indictable offence while on bail and persistent breach of a family violence order and four other intervention order breaches.
It’s a newsworthy story in footy mad Melbourne any day of the week and one that would have likely shamed and embarrassed Laidley.
The North Melbourne premiership player was arrested in St Kilda a week ago.
Who he was allegedly stalking and why will likely be revealed when he brings on an application for bail.
What was not likely to be included in the remand summary was the fact Laidley had been arrested wearing full drag.
And the consequences for him may turn out harsher than the many who have walked in his troubled footsteps.
Laidley had been doing well coaching Maribyrnong Park at the Essendon District league and had big plans for his club.
During a podcast in the days before his arrest, he was adament his wild days were well behind him.
‘I made sure that they (semi-professional players) didn’t have the opinion or view of this psycho who used to coach in the AFL, because I was way past that,’ he said.
‘Out of my 32 years of senior professional football, I reckon last year was probably in the top five or six years that I had … I just enjoyed it so much.
‘It was a great playing group, very coachable, probably too coachable and too nice, so we have a bit of work to do there.’
The fact the football world seemed to know Laidley was a crossdresser for years could indicate he was comfortable in those close to him knowing about it.
Premiership teammate Corey McKernan said the treatment of Laidley could be considered a test case for the AFL’s support of the LGBTI community.
Laidley played 151 games for North Melbourne and West Coast before he retired in 1997 (pictured after retirement in 1998 at his former club)
One of Australia’s most influential football reporters for more than two decades revealed this week he knew Laidley had been dressing in women’s clothes for up to 12 years.
Mike Sheahan rightly said Laidley’s lifestyle choices were not newsworthy.
Until they became newsworthy, his old mate Sam Newman said.
‘His situation is sad but the issue about whether he was a cross dresser 10 or 12 years ago – he’s not breaking any law. If he’s not breaking any law, why would you write about it? And how is it in the public interest?’ Sheehan said.
Two senior constables have been suspended over the leaked pictures of the 53-year-old wearing a dress and wig inside a police station interview room.
The photos may have been sent to more than 100 police officers by group chats on social media platforms such as WhatsApp.
The images were splashed across the front pages of the Herald Sun and the West Australian on the same day a Victorian police officer was to be buried.
It was terrible timing and force command was absolutely livid.
Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton, Regional Operations, speaks to the media at the Victoria Police Centre in Melbourne on Monday. He apologised to Laidley for the leak of his images from a police station
The coffin of Constable Josh Prestney is carried from Xavier College in Melbourne last Monday. It was the same day the Dean Laidley scandal wiped the tragic police funerals from opening the news
Deputy Police Commissioner Shane Patton labelled the leak ‘appalling’.
He could barely contain his anger.
‘I am appalled an employee of Victoria Police has taken these photographs,’ Mr Patton said.
‘It is unacceptable conduct. It is appalling conduct and there is no place for it in our organisation.
‘This is a breach of privacy, a breach of human rights and we are taking the matter extremely seriously.’
Police Minister Lisa Neville practically said the person who had leaked the photos from inside the police station was an ‘idiot’.
‘It was an idiotic thing to do,’ she told reporters.
The suspended officers were expected to be charged with accessing police information without authorisation.
But Laidley’s very private life as a cross dresser was no-more.
Mike Sheahan, who worked was chief football writer for more than 20 years at The Herald, Sunday Age and Herald Sun, said he knew Dean Laidley wore women’s clothes for up to 12 years
Dean Laidley (far right) as an assistant coach at Carlton with the team’s head coach Mick Malthouse (third from left) in 2015. Malthouse said on Tuesday he had tried in vain to reach out to Laidley – who was arrested on Saturday and charged with stalking – in recent years
His lawyer Dee Giannopoulos told a Melbourne court the ex-footy star was suffering from a psychiatric illness.
AFL coaching great Mick Malthouse – who coached Laidley as a player at West Coast after arriving at the club in 1990 – said he knew Laidley was struggling.
‘He was quite ill there at one stage,’ Malthouse said.
‘I don’t know exactly what it was but he was in immense pain and I remember him saying that he was on these painkillers and it was quite debilitating.’
Malthouse claimed his former colleague was under pressure at home ‘both physically and mentally’.
‘The pressure he was under at home with one of his children and the fact he was trying to make ends meet and he had this disease, I wouldn’t have thought that would have done the mind any good at all,’ Malthouse said.
‘It grabs hold of you, coaching, it’s more relentless and it’s more demanding.
‘You’ve got to have a really good partner, good family and an understanding family otherwise you’re trying to … please those at home, those at the football club, those in the media.’
The AFL Coaches Association and North Melbourne have said they will try to help Laidley, but Malthouse said there are ‘limited resources’ within the association to support coaches.
Mark ‘Bomber’ Thompson walked from court in June a convicted criminal 18 months after police found 481 ecstasy pills and large quantities of ice in his Port Melbourne home
While Laidley was known for his colourful personality off-field, he was also clinging to deep seeded torment dating back to his coaching days.
In 2006, he had sought counselling after being ‘haunted’ by the image of a fan he clashed with during a game who later took his own life.
The man, a Kangaroos member in his late 30s, was hit by a train at Seaford on the Frankston line almost 14 years ago to the month.
Laidley twice had words with the Kangaroos fan as he walked through the crowd to address his players during a clash with St Kilda.
Daily Mail Australia revealed this week Laidley was attempting to offload his trendy Moonee Ponds apartment mid last month as his life spiralled out of control.
He had also been actively promoting his Balinese villa, asking friends to share a page dedicated to it in the hope he could rent it out.
A source told Daily Mail Australia Laidley’s collapse into despair had been on public display about the Moonee Ponds area in recent months before the COVID-19 lockdown.
AFL great Dean Laidley appeared to be looking to offload assets in the lead-up to his public arrest
Dean Laidley was pushing his Balinese villa in the lead-up to his arrest in Melbourne on Saturday night
AFL great Dean Laidley in happier times. He was arrested amid allegations he is a stalker
A disheveled Laidley – or ‘Tunnel’ as he is well known – had been seen getting about town barefooted and disheveled.
But if Laidley is in fact hard up for money, he may soon be rolling in cash.
Robinson Gill lawyer Jeremy King said Victoria Police was at risk of being sued over the incident.
‘There’s certainly an argument for civil litigation against Victoria Police,’ Mr King told The Age on Tuesday.
‘It’s clearly a breach of confidential information and it’s done with reckless indifference and it’s clearly going to cause harm and damage.’
It is illegal for police to use or disclose police information without reasonable excuse and the Laidley case was ‘right up there’ among the worst examples, Mr King said.
‘It’s got to be one of the most shocking breaches of privacy I’ve seen in recent memory,’ he said.
Victoria Police has faced some significant payouts in recent years over some extremely serious bungles.
Dale Ewins and Zita Sukys won a multimillion-dollar settlement last year more than two years after officers stormed the Inflation nightclub on King Street and shot them.
Victoria Police is also facing a massive lawsuit by Melbourne man Faruk Orman, whose murder conviction was overturned.
Orman’s conviction for the murder of Victor Peirce was quashed last year over revelations police informer and gangland lawyer Nicola Gobbo had tainted his case.
He had spent 12 years in jail.
While Laidley’s fate remains unclear, Sheehan summed it up well in his podcast this week.
‘It’s sad isn’t it … it’s not about being a cross dresser, he’s facing serious criminal charges,’ he said.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DEAN LAIDLEY
Laidley grew up in Balga in Perth’s north and played senior football for the West Perth Football Club.
He made his debut for the West Coast Eagles in 1987, where he played 52 games before being traded to the North Melbourne ahead of the 1993 season.
He won a premiership with the Kangaroos in 1996 and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2019.
His willingness to commit to contested balls earned him the nickname of ‘The Junkyard Dog’.
Laidley pictured when he signed as the coach of the North Melbourne Kangaroos in 2002 – signing a three-year deal with his former club
His coaching career includes seven seasons with the Kangaroos between 2003 and 2009.
Laidley also spent time with Port Adelaide, St Kilda and Carlton.
He and his family were attacked by bouncers at the Bounty night club in Bali after his daughter’s wedding in 2011.
His son received a broken jaw while Laidley required stitches after being hit in the head with a bottle.
He is currently a coach of Maribyrnong Park in the Essendon Districts Football League, having started there in 2019.