Cameron was a coach of Cambridge High School’s under-16 rugby team between April and December 2020 and formed strong friendships with the two boys, who were 15 at the time.
The 41-year-old also managed a weed-spraying business in the town and employed the boys through a school work programme.
He and the boys would regularly message each other. They would also visit and stay at his property.
They spent “long periods” in the shed, which was decked out with couches and tables, and smoke joints, either through a water bong or pipe, crush up Ecstasy pills on top of a plate or a freezer and then snort lines.
The LSD tab was ingested.
Crown prosecutor Paige Noorland said it was an unusual set of facts as they were still unable to establish the amount of drugs that were consumed over the eight months.
His counsel Tom Sutcliffe told Judge Marshall that only one LSD tab was consumed between them.
He admitted his client had a trusted role in the local Cambridge community and emphasised he was a volunteer, not an employee of the school.
“Just a dad coaching the rugby team.
“He just happened to run a business which allowed for his son to participate in work experience and that then extended to other fellow students and others from the local high school to engage in work experience.”
Sutcliffe said it was fair to say his client had been “particularly selfless in providing a wide range of opportunities, or as he would put it, second chances, for people who would not have the opportunity for work, particularly the work that he does”.
“This is a man who has given a lot of people second chances and what I’m imploring the court to do is to give him a second chance.
“It was apparent at trial that he accepts completely how stupid his actions were; misguided and frankly, ridiculous.”
The line between employer, rugby coach, father and son just became far too relaxed, he said.
“There was no malevolent manipulation ... [he was] just being one of the boys when frankly, he should not have been.
“He should have been one of the adults.”
Cameron had since “recalibrated” and realised he wasn’t doing anyone any favours in a lifestyle that was “clearly disruptive”.
“His priorities were perhaps a bit askew at the time ... and that was apparent at trial.”
He had also been getting counselling and would not step in a court again, and urged Judge Marshall to step back from an electronically-monitored sentence.
The judge agreed Cameron blurred the boundaries of being a responsible adult.
“This was behaviour on your part which really displayed to me at trial that you had completely lost the plot, Mr Cameron,” Judge Marshall said.
“Boundaries were blurred.
“You considered that you were one of them, rather than a responsible adult and matters got out of hand to the point where, it could be safe to say, the wheels came off this whole thing.”
He described Cameron as a “hard player, so to speak” with alcohol and drugs and encouraged the boys along the same line.
However, he noted one of the boys was “far from naive” and that he’d had “experience” with alcohol and drugs before.
Judge Marshall accepted the LSD tab was a one-off and the sale of drugs was not profit-driven.
On a total of six charges, two each of supplying Class A, B and C drugs, Cameron was sentenced to five months’ community detention, nine months’ supervision and 150 hours’ community work.
He was given a curfew of between 7pm and 6am and several conditions including not to possess or supply alcohol or drugs.
Belinda Feek has been a reporter for 19 years, and at the Herald for eight years, joining the Open Justice team in 2022.
