Warren Richards

Warren Richards was an Australian judoka who played the sport at the 1976 Montréal Olympics. Richards was 1975 Oceania Champion and repeated in 1977. He was Australian Champion in 1980, placing second in that event in 1984-85, and third in 1986. Richards attended Newington College from 1960-66. The rest of his life did not turn out so well.

For the 40 years after the Montréal Olympics, Richards led a life of crime, being arrested multiple times as a drug dealer and leader of a drug syndicate known as the “Untouchables”. He was associated with one of Sydney’s most notorious crime figures, Arthur “Neddy” Smith. Richards was suspected of murdering a prostitute, Sallie-Anne Huckstepp, to whom he had supplied heroin, but he was never formally charged with her murder.

In 1998 Richards was arrested and given a 12-year prison term. After his release he resumed his drug dealing and in 2010 he was one of a 31-member syndicate arrested in a drug raid hailed as the “bust of the century.” Police seized millions of dollars worth of drugs and assets, including a helicopter. In 2012 he was sentenced to return to jail for selling 1.5 kg of methamphetamine and receiving stolen vehicles. In 1998 Richards applied to run with the Sydney Olympic Torch and was accepted as a former Olympian, until Sydney Olympic officials realized he had sent the letter from prison.