Watch: Former opposition leader David Speirs claims white powder snorting video is a ‘deepfake’

Former state opposition leader David Speirs says he’s embroiled in a digital hoax over video of him appearing to snort white powder – but a world expert disagrees. WATCH THE VIDEO

Surrounded by wine, liquor bottles, a cigarette lighter and crumpled tissues, former South Australian opposition leader David Speirs appears to bend down to his kitchen bench and snorts some kind of white powder.

It’s 4.12am on June 30 this year in his Kingston Park home and Mr Speirs is recorded loudly sniffing the unidentified substance on a grey plate through a rolled up $5 note he is holding up to his nostril.

Later, at 6.32am according to metadata on a still image of the scene inside the kitchen, Mr Speirs is at the same bench and this time the plate has seven lines of white powder in neat rows. A powder-covered card sits on the plate’s edge.

Mr Speirs was Leader of the Opposition and of the Liberal Party at the time and, just a few hours later at 11am, he was at the Arkaba Medical Centre in Parkside. There, alongside fellow Liberal MP Matt Cowdrey he protested government policy about GP payroll tax.

The Advertiser obtained the video and a still image of the Member for Black’s night at home after it was passed to a third party.

A high-profile forensic analyst, who examined the footage and two still images, found nothing to suggest it had been manipulated, tampered with or altered in any way. Physical features – including ears and facial marks – noted by the analyst match Mr Speirs.

When questioned by The Advertiser at home on Saturday, Mr Speirs said it was “certainly not me” and called the footage “very troubling”.

Mr Speirs was dropped at his property by new Liberal Leader Vincent Tarzia in his government car. Mr Tarzia succeeded Mr Speirs, who quit on August 8, claiming he had run out of energy for the job. The pair held their long-anticipated reunion on Saturday morning.

“That is very strange. No, no way,” Mr Speirs said when asked if he had snorted what appeared to be white powder.

“No, I certainly did not. That is very troubling.

“No, no way … no, definitely not. I would never have done that. Never, never, never.

“I’m quite horrified by that.

“I’m really troubled by that. I’m very, very sorry about that.”

The Advertiser is not suggesting any wrongdoing on Mr Speirs’ behalf, nor is it asserting the substance was illicit.

In a subsequent text conversation with The Advertiser, Mr Speirs said: “I strongly dispute the authentic (sic) of such a video.”

“I was overseas for a chunk of June … I believe this is a deep fake or an elaborate hoax.”

The WhatsApp message exchange between David Speirs and The Advertiser's Kathryn Bermingham on September 7.

He added yesterday that: “ I was overseas for two weeks in June and during that time other persons had access to my home, giving rise to the opportunity for someone to obtain footage of my premises. I am extremely disappointed by this and assure South Australians that I would never take illicit substances, I never have and I never will.”

A still image of the video timestamped 4.12am on June 30.

A still image timestamped 6.32am on June 30.

The video and photographs have been forensically assessed by Dr Matthew Sorell, an internationally-recognised expert in the field of digital evidence. He is routinely engaged by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and has worked on high-profile cases of murder and organised crime.

He is principal consultant of Digital Forensic Sciences and has extensive experience in the evaluation of image provenance and authentication built over almost two decades in Australia and internationally.

The Advertiser asked Dr Sorell to examine the imagery for any evidence of synthetic generation or other modification. He found none.

Dr Sorell broke the pictures down into a series of numbers using a “hexadecimal file viewer and found no anomalies.”

He found consistent lighting and reflections. Through his analysis of the images he was able to determine the rolled item used to snort the powder was a $5 Australian bank note. He also identified wine bottles from Gudilly, a South Australian label.

Dr Matthew Sorell is principal consultant of Digital Forensic Sciences.

David Speirs stepped down from as opposition leader on August 8. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Dr Sorell says the image resolution and metadata of the photos are “mutually consistent” with their content, even when reviewed at the hexadecimal level.

Dr Sorell says he reviewed the video’s metadata to “the binary level”, and that its content is consistent with the content of the still photos.

He says the person in the video is wearing “the same T-shirt” as seen in the photos and also notes “the shape of the left ear with particular attention to the upper helix” and “the dark skin spot on the left cheek”.

“I have checked multiple points of reference including the digital file structures of each supplied photograph and video, the embedded metadata and the content of each photograph/video,” he says.

“It is my opinion that each file is internally consistent and shows no indication of alteration of content or metadata.

“I have also considered the characteristics of photograph alteration and video synthesis, so-called ‘deepfake’ video.

“I am unable to identify any of the characteristics of photograph manipulation such as shadow or reflection anomalies, temporal facial feature detail variations or hand movement anomalies.

Former Liberal leader David Speirs at his home in Kingston Park, answering questions put to him by The Advertiser on Saturday, September 7. Picture: Dean Martin

“Based on my detailed technical review, the photographs and video appear to be authentic, internally consistent, and without indications of tampering of content, metadata or file structure.”

Last week, Mr Speirs called for a federal takeover of the Liberal Party’s SA branch, saying its problems were “as bad, if not worse” than in the NSW division, which had been put in the hands of the federal party.

His comments, in a radio interview, continued his public grievance with his parliamentary colleagues that began when, upon his resignation, he said: “To be honest, I’ve just had a gutful”.

“I don’t have the energy to fight for a leadership that, quite frankly, in the current circumstances, I just don’t want to pursue anymore,” he said at the time.

“I was probably a different type of leader for the Liberal Party, a different background … the party’s never been led by someone from the southern suburbs before.

“I think I brought something different … was it too soon for me to lead the party, or was the party simply not ready for me to lead it?”

Mr Speirs vowed he would “never stop advocating” for his constituents, but he was not included in Mr Tarzia’s frontbench line-up.

Originally published as Watch: Former opposition leader David Speirs claims white powder snorting video is a ‘deepfake’