Former Liberal leader David Speirs learns his fate in court over cocaine scandal

Former South Australian Liberal leader David Speirs has been fined $9,000 and handed 37.5 hours of community service for supplying cocaine, after the leak of a video in his home destroyed his political career.

The 40-year-old was sentenced in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Thursday after pleading guilty in March to two counts of drug supply.

The offences involved Speirs giving cocaine to two friends in early August about the time he stepped down as opposition leader.

The saga erupted after footage shared online appeared to show Mr Speirs bending over a plate and sniffing a substance in the kitchen of his Kingston Park home in Adelaide’s south.

Despite the footage being from inside his home and the pictured person bearing a strong resemblance to Mr Speirs, the former Liberal leader insisted it was not him, and suggested at the time the footage could be a ‘deep fake’.

When confronted by a reporter at his home about the images, Mr Speirs insisted they were ‘certainly not me’ and that he was horrified by the ‘troubling’ photos.

‘That is very strange. No, no way,’ Mr Speirs said.

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

David Speirs (right) was the leader of the South Australian Liberal Party when he used cocaine as a ‘means of escapism’ and introduced it to his friends around August 2024

‘I’m quite horrified by that. I’m really troubled by that. I’m very, very sorry about that.’

In a follow-up text sent to The Advertiser, Mr Speirs said he ‘strongly disputed’ the authenticity of any video as described.

‘I believe this is a deep fake or an elaborate hoax,’ he said. 

He late stated he had been overseas for two weeks in June.

‘During that time other persons had access to my home, giving rise to the opportunity for someone to obtain footage of my premises,’ he said. 

‘I am extremely disappointed by this and assure South Australians that I would never take illicit substances, I never have and I never will.’

Despite his initial denials, Mr Speirs later admitted to being a cocaine user.

‘I would never describe myself as an addict or anything like that,’ Mr Speirs told The Australian. ‘I absolutely wasn’t’.

Footage appeared to show the former opposition leader bending over a plate in the kitchen of his Kingston Park home in Adelaide’s south (pictured)

‘I’d done it years before and while I was Leader of the Opposition it became an issue. 

‘It wasn’t something consistent, it wasn’t something I was reliant on, it was a very occasional thing.

‘It was a very, very hard job, and if there’s a job that’s being harder than Leader of the Opposition it’s being leader of the Liberal Party of South Australia.

‘I’ve got no real regrets in terms of my professional life. But I also knew when to pull the pin because my life was unravelling.’

The video emerged shortly after he quit as Liberal leader on August 8, declaring he had ‘just had a gutful’ of speculation about being replaced, and that he did not have the energy to keep fighting.

He was replaced as Liberal leader by Vincent Tarzia.

Mr Speirs had intended to stay on as the member for the southern Adelaide electorate of Black, but after he was arrested and his home raided by police he resigned from parliament in October.

The subsequent by-election for the seat was won by Labor.