Singer Altiyan Childs is in more hot water. Picture: Damian Shaw Source: News Limited
EMBATTLED rocker Altiyan Childs has been convicted of driving under the influence of methamphetamine and cannabis, outraging fans he has long told: "My only drug is love."
Capping off a disastrous 12 months, the eccentric X Factor winner pleaded guilty in Taree Local Court this week to having both drugs in his system while driving a car north on the Pacific Highway, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The 36-year-old reportedly admitted to police that he had smoked a "joint laced with MDMA" at a party in Bexley, in Sydney's south, the night before he was pulled over for a roadside breath test in Coolongolook, near Forster, on November 8 last year.
Just three weeks later Childs walked the ARIA Awards red carpet and accepted the award for Highest Selling Album of 2011.
Childs - real name Altijan Juric - yesterday said it was a "very rare thing" for him to be caught up with drugs but that he was trying to relax after a troubled year.
"My romantic relationship with the world is constantly being challenged, but I am now ready for that," he said. Childs denied rumours he has split with 19-year-old girlfriend Nikki Kingston, who he met on Facebook.
"We are madly in love and while nothing has happened yet, I'm sure she is the one I will be marrying," he said.
Childs - who promised to release a new album called Twenty Twelve - was fined $600 plus court costs and disqualified from driving for six months.
While the automatic penalty is a 12-month disqualification, magistrate Shaughan McCosker chose to reduce the period, saying Childs' driving showed no aggravating factors.
His followers have not been so kind, branding Childs a liar.
"He's not the person I thought he was - he's going to lose a lot of people over this," said one diehard fan.
Childs is a protege of Ronan Keating, who has spoken out about how his X Factor contender had "pissed" away his opportunities: "He was given everything on a plate and I've watched a lot of these shows ... and 90 per cent of the contestants have pissed it all away."
It's not the first time Childs has been embroiled in a criminal offence, having been convicted in 2008 on charges of mid-range drink driving, resisting or hindering police and proceeding through a red/yellow traffic light.
In February last year he said he was bashed by four "haters" following a gig in Hobart on the same night he was alleged to have trashed a hotel room.
He then appeared on Today Tonight saying he was broke, infected with lice and would have been better off keeping his job as a forklift driver, but that his love for Kingston had saved him.
Not long after that his then-manager Steve Yankuloff was charged with eight weapons offences following a raid on his Ramsgate home, which Childs had moved out of only days earlier. Childs was not charged with any offences in relation to the raid.
Yankuloff will appear in court this month.
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