Drug charge slip-up

Anti-ageing guru freed by court after conviction overturned

AN anti-ageing guru with links to controversial sports scientist Steven Dank has been given a get-out-of-jail card because of a basic prosecution blunder.

Robin James Taylor was jailed for seven years, with a 4½ year non-parole period, after being convicted of drug trafficking in 2018.

But the Victorian Court of

Appeal quashed the conviction and set aside the sentence, allowing Taylor to walk free from prison.

Taylor, who ran Melbourne Sports Medicine and AntiAgeing clinic in Moonee Ponds, was a former practice manager at biochemist Shane Charter’s Dr Ageless clinic.

Charter was a key witness in the anti-doping case against

Essendon Football Club, refused to give evidence.

He also reportedly supplied supplements to Dank, the club’s former performance scientist, and friend of Taylor’s.

Taylor was convicted of a single count of trafficking in a drug of dependence, namely anabolic and androgenic steroidal agents, and jailed for seven years. but

He was also convicted on eight charges of importing tier 1 goods, specifically anabolic and androgenic steroidal agents.

Taylor appealed against the trafficking charge, successfully arguing that it was an offence not known to the law.

He argued that while he had been charged with trafficking a drug of dependence, anabolic and androgenic steroidal agents were not specifically drugs of dependence.

The Court of Appeal justices Phillip Priest, Kim Hargrave and Mark Weinberg agreed with the distinction.

The Court of Appeal said it would be a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions whether any attempt was made to lay fresh charges.