Video and photos have emerged that appear to show recently deposed South Australian Liberal leader David Speirs snorting white powder from a plate.
The footage, obtained by the Adelaide Advertiser, appears to show the former opposition leader bending over a plate 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, he says it is not him, and suggests the footage could be a ‘deep fake’.
Using what looks like a rolled up $5 note, the man in the footage appeared to loudly sniff the substance off the plate.
The video’s metadata reveals it was taken at 4.12am on June 30 when Mr Speirs was still the Liberal leader.
A second still image timestamped two hours later showed the same man at the kitchen bench with seven lines of white powder on the plate and a plastic bank card on show.
Daily Mail Australia does not suggest Mr Speirs has done anything illegal.
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.
Video has emerged appearing to show former Liberal leader David Speirs using a $5 note to sniff a white substance off a plate
‘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.
‘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.
Mr Speirs has strongly denied that it is him the images and raised the possibility they may be ‘deep fakes’
On Sunday, he texted that he was 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 wrote.
‘I am extremely disappointed by this and assure South Australians that I would never take illicit substances, I never have and I never will.’
At the time the images were purportedly taken, Mr Speirs was the state’s Liberal opposition leader and hoped to defeat Premier Peter Malinauskas at the next election.
Later that day, he attended an 11am press conference at Arkaba Medical Centre in Parkside.
Mr Speirs became state opposition leader after the Liberals lost the state election in 2022 and former premier Steve Marshall stepped aside.
David Speirs said he was horrified by the ‘troubling’ photos
Mr Speirs announced his shock resignation last month, declaring he’d ‘had a gutful’ of backroom machinations to replace him as leader.
‘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.
‘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 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, who remains a backbench MP representing the electorate of Black, has since called for federal intervention in the South Australian Liberals.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Speirs for comment.
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