Peter Zubic claims David Speirs ‘took advantage’ of his drug addiction
The man who former opposition leader David Speirs supplied cocaine to last year said he felt ‘preyed upon’ and Speirs took advantage of his addiction.
Police & Courts
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One of the men who David Speirs supplied cocaine to last year says he felt preyed upon by the then alternative premier, whom he says took advantage of him as a recovering drug addict.
Peter Zubic, 28, who first met Speirs when he was a teenager through their mutual church, said at one meeting at Speirs’ Kingston Park home the then opposition leader “snorted a lot” of high purity cocaine.
Mr Zubic has also revealed a stream of Instagram messages from Speirs in which he talks about drug use and sex.
Court documents released this week contained some of the messages to Mr Zubic, who along with another former church friend, Andrew Sampson, was a witness in the drug supply case against Speirs.
Speirs told the friends he was “always happy to catch up for a drink and a bag,” the court documents revealed.
They also contained evidence that Speirs crushed rocks of cocaine – stashed in his bedside drawer and fireplace – on his kitchen bench before snorting it through rolled up Australian and US bank notes.
Mr Zubic told The Advertiser he was 15 when he met Speirs in 2012 at Edwardstown Baptist Church, where the disgraced former MP worked as a youth leader. Speirs was deputy mayor at Marion Council at the time.
Mr Zubic, who was then a student at Emmaus Christian College, said Speirs organised for him to do his year 10 work experience at the council.
He said that a year later, he and Speirs attended the same church Easter camp for teens.
“At the camp he was bragging and showing me some photos of the property portfolio he owned,” Mr Zubic said.
In July last year, he bumped into Speirs with Mr Zubic’s childhood friend, Mr Sampson, 28, at Cream cafe in Brighton. It was the first time he had seen him in 13 years.
He said Speirs, who had his 12-year-old nephew with him, also knew Mr Sampson from the church as he was friends with Mr Sampson’s parents.
In Instagram messages to Mr Zubic, and seen by The Advertiser, Speirs wrote “good to see you the other day”.
Mr Zubic wrote back that he was recovering from “active addiction”.
In the message exchange, Speirs invited Mr Zubic to his house where he gave him and Mr Sampson cocaine and alcohol. “We all sat around the kitchen table and talked,” Mr Zubic said of the August 2, 2024 meeting.
“Speirs bragged a lot, again about the property purchases he made and how he pays for his two nephews’ school fees.”
Mr Zubic told The Advertiser that prior to that meeting, he had told Speirs he was going to Narcotics Anonymous with Mr Sampson.
He said that during the meeting, he told Speirs he was struggling with his ADHD.
“I guess it was making me very impulsive,” Mr Zubic said.
“I feel taken advantage of.”
He said Speirs invited them the following weekend to his house on August 9, where there was a “lot of cocaine” with unusually high purity by “Adelaide standards”.
“He snorted a lot of it,” he said. “Very pure.”
There were two to three grams at the premises.
Mr Zubic said he felt like Speirs took advantage of his vulnerability.
“I was at about 100 days clean at the time of seeing him,” he told The Advertiser.
Mr Zubic said he also felt pressure from Speirs over a series of explicit messages, believing the then MP was trying to “get me to say I was gay/bi”.
In the messages Speirs says he didn’t think gay sex was just about intercourse but there was “other fun stuff”.
Mr Zubic replied: “Whatever makes them happy”.
Speirs then said that guys can also do “jacking off” and “sucking”.
Later in the exchange, Mr Zubic responded to Speirs’ questions about why he was being so open by saying “people have told me I’m autistic”.
Speirs then said he had “done stuff with other guys and enjoyed it, I’m sure you will too ...” Mr Zubic replied: “To be honest I just want a wife and kids.”
Mr Zubic said he made a report to Crime Stoppers about Speirs supplying him and Mr Sampson with cocaine.
On September 9, The Advertiser published a video from June 30 last year depicting Speirs snorting a line of white powder on his kitchen bench.
When approached by The Advertiser, he claimed the video was a “deep fake” and that people staying at his home while he had been away could have obtained footage of his kitchen to create a fake.
The Advertiser hired a forensic investigator who found no evidence of a deep fake.
Speirs told The Advertiser he would “never take illicit substances” and, when he resigned as MP for Black in October, said he would clear his name and claimed he was a victim of a deep state plot.
Court documents revealed that the day after The Advertiser’s publication, police approached and interviewed Mr Zubic, having “identified him as a witness” to Speirs’ drug use, and also seized and analysed his phone.
Mr Zubic said he was now getting his life back together.
He said he was taking medication for his ADHD that meant he was a lot less “reckless and impulsive” and he regularly saw his GP and a psychologist.
He has been drug-free since his time at Speirs’ home.
Mr Zubic has re-enrolled in a civil engineering degree at Flinders University and recently completed a Certificate III in Community Services.
His aim was to finish uni and work in construction project management.
Speirs was contacted for comment. He pleaded guilty to two counts of drug supply and will be sentenced on April 24.
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