Scott Miller became a lonely and depressed adult, his life marred by substance abuse and depression, his lawyer Arjun Chabra told the NSW District Court on Thursday.
Miller was using the supposedly encrypted ANOM phone app when he learnt a plan to smuggle 4kg of meth from Sydney to Albury on the Victorian border had ended in arrests.
Miller, the 100m butterfly silver medallist at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, drove 4kg of meth hidden in a secret compartment about 280km from Sydney to Yass then handed it over for transport to Albury.
Scott Miller s shambolic meth-smuggling scheme had no chance of success, with police watching, listening to and tracking every movement of the drugs from start to finish.
Miller, who won silver in the 100m butterfly at the 1996 Olympics, was one of four men charged over the transportation of 4kg of meth worth about $2.2million from Sydney to rural NSW.