Bullying excuse is accepted in Australian court

Brenton Dowell, an Australian bodybuilder, was caught possessing and importing great quantities of anabolic steroids in March 2011. It was determined that these steroids could be sufficient to be applied for over 60 years by a person. A lot of people thought that this bodybuilder would be sentenced to prison. But Dowell avoided imprisonment successfully.
The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service confirmed that Brenton Dowell had attempted to import illegally more than 3 kg of testosterone powder. The packages that contained the raw steroid powder were mailed in September, October and November 2011. They were shipped to three various places: to the home of Dowell, to his father and his stepfather.
Actually, such large quantities of raw testosterone powder could be purchased only for manufacture of anabolic steroids by underground labs in order to sell them on the black market. 3, 000 g of raw steroid powder could be utilized for getting of 1500 10-ml vials with ready preparations.
Len Hartnett, the defense attorney for Brenton Dowell, argued that the testosterone powder had been bought for his client’s personal application. He noticed that Dowell’s administration of steroids was a response to bullying attacks that he received, when he was an overweight boy. So, according to the defense attorney Len Hartnett, Brenton Dowell became addicted to bodybuilding and began to administer steroids because he was an overweight child.
The judge Graeme Hicks was impressed by affirmations of the defense attorney that described experiences of Brenton Dowell in his childhood. He noticed that it could be concluded that Dowell had become obsessed by bodybuilding.
So, the judge accepted bullying excuse. Based on the descriptions and affirmations of the defense attorney, the judge Graeme Hicks believed that the bodybuilder Brenton Dowell had bought steroids for self-administration and for sales to his friends in order to pay off self-administration.
The bodybuilder Brenton Dowell was sentenced to a fine of 10, 000 dollars and 2-year suspended sentence.