Wade John-Henry Kemp’s meth and GHB charges dropped after police evidence failures

A man accused of being in possession of a significant amount of dangerous drugs has had his charges dropped thanks to two big holes in the police case.

Wade John-Henry Kemp. Contributed

A Mackay region man accused of being in possession of significant quantities of meth, and GHB has had his charges discharged by a magistrate after police failed to demonstrate how the evidence was handled before testing.

Wade John-Henry Kemp, 34, had white powder found in what police allege was a stolen car, and in his pocket, on September 16, 2025.

But a three-hour window in which police can’t account for where the evidence bags containing the white powder went, or who handled them, before they were sent for testing has made the allegations impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

Magistrate Patricia Kirkman-Scroope, speaking in the Mackay court said there was a ‘significant hole’ in the police case.

“There is just no evidence in any of these statements that it was kept in safe custody, what has happened in the meantime,” she said.

One of the bags was handled by “a large number of people” and at one point “renumbered and remarked” as it was put into a different bag, Magistrate Kirkman-Scroope said.

“The exhibit could have been deliberately or inadvertently mixed with other exhibits.

“The prosecution, in my view, cannot exclude that.”

Police also alleged Mr Kemp was in possession of GHB, but barrister Joshua Morris said testing revealed the substance was not GHB but a different schedule six controlled substance.

The court heard the 2.101g of powder found was sent for forensic analysis, which confirmed the presence of a chemical substance related to party drug GHB.

No purity test was submitted by police to the courts.

Mr Morris argued that without a purity test there is no way to show how much of any potential illegal drug was present in the substance, calling it “fatal”.

He cited a case where it was found “the amount of heroin found is extracted it would not be visible to the naked eye, then no offence has been committed”.

“My submission is that what the certificate of analysis says is the quantity of the substance and not the purity of the drug,” Mr Morris said.

“Of the 2.101g of substance it’s simply not possible for the prosecution to say how much of that substance contained the drug that is detected.”

The police prosecutor said the prosecution had no information or submissions to give beyond the brief of evidence provided by police.

Magistrate Kirkman-Scroope noted case law precedents in which it was ruled the prosecution must provide an actual quantity of the drug.

“It would be impossible for a jury to come to a conclusion,” she said.

“The reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence is that there was some other level of purity, if any at all, and that can’t be excluded.”

Barrister Morris was successful in the no-case submission on Kemp’s charges of drug possession, schedule three but not exceeding schedule four.

Magistrate Kirkman-Scroope formally discharged Kemp on those charges.

He remains in custody on remand and is still facing charges relating to the unlawful use of a motor vehicle, tainted property and being in possession of drug utensils.

He has not entered any pleas.

Speaking outside the court, Wade’s father Wayne Kemp said he was just “hoping to get him home”.

“And put him to work”.

Originally published as Wade John-Henry Kemp’s meth and GHB charges dropped after police evidence failures