Cricketing great Stuart MacGill is fighting back against his conviction for his role in facilitating a $330,000 drug deal and will next year appear in court in an attempt to have his guilty verdict quashed on appeal.
MacGill was earlier this year found guilty by a jury of helping to set up a drug deal between a man and a street-level drug dealer underneath his Neutral Bay restaurant in Sydney in April 2021.
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He walked free from court and was spared jail after Judge Nicole Noman sentenced MacGill to a one-year-and-10-month intensive corrections order and ordered him to perform 495 hours of community service.
MacGill has now lodged an appeal against his conviction and sentence and lawyers for the cricketing great on Thursday appeared in the Court of Criminal Appeal.
His appeal will be heard in May next year.
The court was told that Mr MacGill will be represented by barrister Dominic Toomey SC, who was described by registrar Peter Clayton as a “heavy hitter”.
During his evidence to the court, MacGill claimed he simply introduced the drug dealer, who can only be known as Person A, and the other man and played no part in a later drug deal.
MacGill was in March found guilty by a jury of one count of taking part in the supply of a prohibited drug.
He was found not guilty of the more serious charge of taking part in the supply of a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.
During MacGill’s trial, the Crown alleged that Person A – who was MacGill’s regular cocaine dealer – and the man came to an agreement to exchange $330,000 for 1kg of cocaine.
MacGill told the court that he regularly purchased half a gram of cocaine from Person A for $200.
During sentencing proceedings, Judge Noman told the court that the jury must not have been satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that MacGill knew the deal was for a kilo of cocaine and $330,000.
She said Person A, during his evidence, said he made references to a “brick”, which was an accepted term within the drug industry for 1kg of the drug.
Judge Noman said the jury found it could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that MacGill had knowledge of the quantity of the drugs being exchanged.
The court was told that MacGill had acted as a go-between before setting up a meeting between the pair underneath Aristotle’s restaurant, which MacGill ran with his partner Maria O’Meagher. Ms O’Meagher was not accused of any wrongdoing.
MacGill stood metres away during the meeting, the court was told.
MacGill said in his evidence he immediately left the meeting after introducing Person A and the man and maintained his innocence.
It was not alleged that MacGill was present when the drug exchange later took place in a park in Ashfield.
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