David Speirs sentenced in the Adelaide Magistrates Court for supply drug charges, admits to inventing deepfake excuse

David Speirs has run out of options, excuses and time. Now, a court has forced him to face the consequences of his criminal actions.

• How Speirs was caught out

David Speirs said he took cocaine to escape the pressures of political life – but a court has ruled that excuse is no reason he should escape a conviction for his crimes.

On Thursday, the Adelaide Magistrates Court convicted Speirs of two counts of supplying cocaine and fined him $9000.

Magistrate Brian Nitschke also ordered the former opposition leader perform 37 ½ hours of community service within the next 18 months, warning he would be jailed for a day for every 7 ½ hours he failed to serve.

Speaking with The Australian ahead of his sentencing, Mr Speirs said the deepfake claim was never true and that he secretly returned to cocaine use while failing to cope with his job as Liberal leader.

In sentencing, Mr Nitschke noted Speirs’ complaint that media coverage of his case had exposed him to embarrassment and humiliation so great that it should be considered a penalty in itself.

David Speirs arrives for sentencing. Picture: NewsWire/Roy VanDerVegt

“I’m not prepared to take in to account the scrutiny and media coverage,” he said.

“This is an injury inflicted upon yourself by yourself.

“You well knew you were committing serious criminal offences, and yet you went ahead and committed them.”

Speirs, 40, pleaded guilty to two counts of having supplied a controlled drug, namely cocaine, to two people in August 2024, before and after his resignation as Opposition leader.

His arrest was made public a month after The Advertiser published a forensically-authenticated video of him appearing to snort white powder on June 30, 2024.

Court documents reveal Speirs crushed rocks of cocaine – stashed in his bedside drawers and fireplace – on his kitchen bench before snorting it through Australian and US bank notes.

He exchanged hundreds of messages, discussing “life and sexuality”, with the two people and told one of them he was “always happy to catch up for a drink and a bag”.

One of them, Peter Zubic, has since said he felt “preyed upon” by Speirs who was aware he was a recovering drug addict.

Speirs had asked that he be spared a conviction for his “escapism”.

In sentencing, Mr Nitschke said he considered Speirs’ second offence more serious than his first.

He said that was because Speirs had the opportunity to “stop and reflect”, between the incidents, and yet continued to supply drugs to the men.

It was also more serious, he said, because Speirs had the cocaine crushed, in lines and waiting prior to the men arriving at his house on the second occasion.

That all occurred, he said, against Speirs “well-knowing” the criminality of his actions due to his position as a politician and legislator.

Mr Nitschke quoted Speirs’ psychological report, which concluded he suffered no mental illness, drug addiction nor substance abuse problem.

His turn to drugs was, he said, explained by political life.

Sentencing for David Speirs. Picture: NewsWire / Roy VanDerVegt

“You say you began to prioritise what you saw as the needs and expectations of the general public, as well as the responsibilities of leadership, over your self-care needs,” he said.

“In around June of 2024, although you were able to (give) the appearance of functionality and competence in public, you felt chronically exhausted and that your emotional wellbeing was becoming compromised.

“You felt the leadership was unsustainable for you personally.

Speirs, he said, used cocaine “approximately four to five times” in 2024, feeling it “significantly changed” the “chronic state of tiredness, fatigue and frustration” to which he had “become accustomed”.

However, Speirs had ceased drug use upon his arrest and had since returned four negative tests.

“I accept that you feel great shame and are extremely remorseful for your behaviour, and that you accept responsibility,” he said.

“I accept your initial denials, when the matter was made public, were underpinned by panic and what you have called ‘a deep sense of shame and embarrassment’.

“However, these matters must be balanced against the recognition that these consequences would have been obvious to you when you committed these offences.

“Many people suffer stress for many reasons... you had the intelligence and wherewithal to seek help, sadly you did not.”

Mr Nitschke said neither Speirs’ “extreme discomfort” nor his “intermittent episodes of stress and anxiety” over media coverage warranted leniency.

“The further step you took, in supplying that dangerous drug to others, carried with it the risk of harm to those with whom you shared it,” he said.

Speirs offending was, he said, “too serious” to warrant a bond and required “denunciation” in the form of convictions for each count.

Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia said South Australians expected their MPs to do the right thing.

“Now that the judicial process involving the former Member for Black has been completed, it highlights that nobody is above the law,” Mr Tarzia said.

“Those elected to public office should be setting an example and they must therefore remain focused always on serving their community with integrity.

That is the firm expectation that the Liberal Party has of our candidates and the parliamentary team under my leadership.”

Originally published as David Speirs sentenced in the Adelaide Magistrates Court for supply drug charges, admits to inventing deepfake excuse