By Violet Li
Casey-raised professional boxer Kayne Clarke has been sentenced to jail for trafficking cocaine of commercial quantity.
The 36-year-old Abu Dhabi-born boxer, with the alias of Superman, pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court and was sentenced to prison for three years and six months with a non-parole period of two and six months on Friday 8 November.
Clarke was arrested on 8 August 2023, the same day when he supplied 498.9 grams of cocaine at 71 per cent purity (354 grams) to co-accused Bilal Mpinganjira in Oakleigh.
Mpinganjira, a subject of an ongoing police investigation, went on to sell the amount to Victoria Police Covert Operatives and was arrested on the scene.
Police then attended a fish and chip shop on Eaton Mall in Oakleigh to arrest Clarke.
The court heard that Clarke managed to secure the cocaine through a third party called ‘Cisco’ within eight hours on the day of the transaction.
“Your role necessarily informs the seriousness of the offending and while you did not initiate the sale, you were the supplier with whom Mr Mpinganjira made immediate contact when he needed to source the drug,” the court stated.
“You then discussed with a third party a range of suppliers indicating a need to maintain Mr Mpinganjira’s business as you saw him as a ‘big connect’.”
The court stated that Clarke’s moral culpability was relatively high in the circumstances.
“While you are being sentenced only for one transaction on a single day when consideration is given to your conversations with Mr Mpinganjira, together with the wider circumstances, it is plain that you were well connected at a relatively high level in order to quickly source the amount of drug that was being sought.”
The court also heard the personal circumstances of Clarke where he was expelled from schools in Casey three times during his adolescent years.
He became a professional kickboxer at age 25 and went on to secure two Australian titles and entered three professional fights.
He continued kickboxing throughout his early 30s until he seriously injured his knee one week before his world elimination fight, which ended his career.
The court found that Clarke experienced “a turbulent childhood characterised by alcoholism and violence on the part of his father”.
His parents separated during the Covid and his older brother, at the time, was struggling with a severe meth addiction, which accrued a $20,000 drug debt and led to drug-related offending to repay the debt.
The court took into account his personal circumstances but believed there was little evidence to support a reduction in moral culpability based on his early experiences.
Clarke was found with a prior criminal history of a number of injury-related charges but no drug-related offending.
