A top Melbourne model who partied with Hollywood A-listers and posed with Aussie icons hopes to bounce back to the top after she suffered a descent into drug hell.
Savannah McKay, 28, pleaded guilty to a string a charges, including careless driving in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday to what she vowed will be the last of her criminal offences.
She was a high-flying model on her way to stardom but instead ended up homeless and behind bars after party drugs wrecked her life and led to her downfall.
McKay had posed alongside Aussie tennis legend Pat Rafter and Scream actress Samara Weaving in glossy photo shoots before her drug habit derailed her promising career.
The glamorous beauty drove a luxury Audi while living in Melbourne’s affluent inner-south and worked for brands including The No Bra Club, Bettina and Bonds.
But her sudden fall from grace left her on the streets and ultimately in jail.
The former private schoolgirl ended up at Melbourne’s notorious Dame Phyllis Frost Centre women’s prison after her party drug addiction took a grip of her life.
McKay admitted crashing her white Mitsubishi into several tram stops, a tram seat and a bin at Abbotsford just after 7am on February 9, 2022.
The court heard McKay, who pleaded guilty to careless driving, drove from the scene but was soon captured to police who carted the party girl to hospital for a blood test.
McKay, who told police she thought she had hit an animal, refused the blood test because the she had a ‘phobia of needles’.
The elusive model, who also pleaded guilty to failing to provide a blood sample, also admitted breaching a community correction order handed to her last September.
McKay, who was late appearing at today’s delayed hearing, was handed the order for a litany of drug-fuelled offending dating back to 2020.
She spent a total of 61 days on remand at notorious women’s prison Dame Phyllis Frost at various times while on the drug binge between November 2020 and June 2023.
McKay was arrested in possession of meth, weed, dexamphetamine, valium, LSD and party drugs 1,4 butanediol and GHB and quetiapine – a schizophrenia medication known on the street as ‘Susie Q’ or ‘baby heroin’ – at locations across Melbourne.
McKay and another woman were found passed out in the car park of a Bunnings where police seized drugs from the model’s black Audi sedan.
Multiple warrants have also been issued for McKay’s arrest after the model repeated failures to attend court.
McKay was served an arrest warrant for her latest offense.
The lucky model almost found herself in dire trouble after she was charged with stalking her ex-boyfriend.
However those charges were struck out during a court hearing in December last year.
It had been alleged McKay rang her ex-boyfriends’ apartment doorbell for three hours straight during a suspected month-long campaign of harassment between November and December 2020.
She allegedly subjected her victim to a constant barrage of phone calls and created multiple Instagram accounts in an attempt to contact her ex.
McKay was also accused of appearing, uninvited, at the man’s workplace ‘numerous times’ and also changed her ex partner’s Bumble dating app profile.
The man reported McKay to police, who tracked the model down while she was working in Prahran and quizzed her about the stalking and harassment allegations.
McKay who refuted the struck-out charge of stalking, allegedly told police she was in an ‘on-again, off-again’ relationship with the man but they broke up ‘three weeks earlier’.
‘I can’t get into his building, I remember standing downstairs like calling his name for maybe like 20 minutes,’ McKay allegedly told police.
‘I know it’s irrational to be yelling someone’s name.’
McKay, who puffed on a vape, drank an energy drink and did her make-up while the court waited to proceed with her matter, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to breaching the court order due to ‘engagement’ issues with corrections staff.
At the hearing, Deputy Chief Magistrate Tim Bourke gave McKay the chance to get out of the criminal system and get back to her glittering career.
‘Get away from the criminal justice system,’ Mr Bourke said.
‘You are young, me helping you might see you help yourself.’
McKay told the court she wanted to move on and that her previous drug use and crimes were behind her.
Her lawyer also pointed out the offending was ‘quite dated’.
‘You’ve caused the delay,’ Mr Bourke responded.
‘You’ve been listed for pleas seven or eight times and haven’t shown up.’
McKay was fined $150 without conviction and had her licence disqualified for two years.
She will be sentenced for the court order breach next week.