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A court has been told how a brother of former NSW police minister and deputy premier Paul Toole spiralled into drug addiction and of their often “violent” upbringing in a family of nine siblings.
Joshua Toole is due to sentenced on Wednesday after pleading guilty to one count of supplying a large commercial quantity of the drug ice in 2023.
The men’s sister, Carmel Vogelsang, appeared as a witness prior to the sentence being handed down at a District Court hearing in Newcastle.
Vogelsang sobbed as she described the “very family orientated” Joshua feeling like a failure after being unable to hold down a job on his release from prison around 2010.
“He was blaming himself. He kept talking about being a failure,” Vogelsang told the court.
“I’m assuming it would be quite difficult to reintegrate back into the community.
“We did what we could to help him.”
Joshua Toole was arrested in October 2022 after two kilograms of methylamphetamine with a street value of about $2 million, as well as $220,000 in cash, was seized during a series of raids at Belmont North, Nords Wharf and Wadalba.
Police alleged he used the encrypted app Threema with the handle “Smiley” to run a criminal syndicate supplying drugs across NSW’s Hunter region and Central Coast.
Prosecutors agreed to drop a further 33 charges against him following his guilty plea.
Vogelsang said there was “never a dull moment” growing up with nine kids, and that violence would often erupt between siblings – but never from their parents, whom she described as “absolutely beautiful”.
“Obviously with so many different personalities and different age groups there was fighting,” she said.
“Sometimes there was more violence than you would expect.”
Vogelsang told she court she knows Joshua is no longer using drugs.
“I know he’s definitely sober,” she said.
“He’s a different person to what I spoke to prior; his whole demeanour’s different.
“He’s calm. He’s not snappy.”
She said upon his release from what will most likely be a hefty jail sentence handed down on Wednesday, he will have the full support of his family.
“There’s nine of us and we’ll be there for him all the way,” she said.
Most of the other siblings went on to serve the community in different ways, including her brother in politics, Vogelsang said.
Paul Toole was the NSW deputy premier and police minister at the time of his brother’s arrest and is now the shadow police minister after the coalition lost the state election in March.
Joshua was granted bail in 2022 after complaining he was being held like a “caged animal” in a cell for more than 23 hours a day.
Due to his brother’s profile and the publicity being generated by his case, Toole had been placed in segregation for his own protection by prison officials.
Defence barrister Phillip Boulten SC said since being released on bail he has “basically been on house arrest”, unable to leave home other than to attend specific appointments.
