Stuart MacGill guilty of taking part in the supply of cocaine

A jury has found former Australian cricketer, Stuart MacGill guilty of supplying cocaine.

Transcript

00:0054-year-old Stuart McGill pleaded not guilty to participating in the supply of a prohibited

00:07drug.

00:08The New South Wales District Court heard that in April 2021, he introduced his drug dealer

00:13to his partner's brother, Marino Sotiropoulos, in the car park of his Neutral Bay restaurant,

00:19Aristotle's.

00:20Now, the crown case here was that that introduction amounted to the participation in the supply

00:26of a prohibited drug, because although Stuart McGill's involvement ended with his introduction,

00:31the court heard that those two men allegedly went on to organise a deal for $330,000 in

00:37exchange for one kilogram of cocaine.

00:39Now, the key crown witness in this trial was the drug dealer, who was known in court as

00:44Person A, but Person A gave evidence in a closed court.

00:49The defence team cast doubt on the drug dealer's credibility and said he had participated in

00:54dishonest conduct in a number of respects, but the crown pointed to his evidence and

00:59invited the jury to accept it as honest and reliable, saying that it was corroborated

01:04by other records before the court.

01:06Now, Stuart McGill stepped into the witness box in his own defence, and he told the jury

01:11that he had no knowledge of the supply deals that are alleged to have happened after he

01:16made this introduction.

01:18He said from his point of view, he was really trying to palm off his annoying brother-in-law

01:23On to someone who shared a common interest.

01:25He said that common interest, from Person A and Mr Sotiropoulos' point of view, would

01:30have been drugs in his mind.

01:32After about seven hours of deliberations, the jurors have reached a unanimous verdict

01:37this afternoon.

01:38They found Stuart McGill not guilty of taking part in the supply of a large commercial quantity

01:44of a prohibited drug, but they have found him guilty of an alternative charge, and that

01:48was taking part in the supply of a prohibited drug.

01:52That means that the charge that he has been found guilty of is essentially participation

01:57in supply without the element of the amount being a large commercial quantity.

02:02When he learned that verdict this afternoon, Stuart McGill gave no reaction from the dock,

02:07and his case will return to court in May for sentence proceedings.