Almost two years to the day since world champion kayaker Nathan Baggaley and his brother were jailed over a bungled cocaine-smuggling plot, Dru Baggaley says there has been a miscarriage of justice.
The men were found guilty by a Brisbane Supreme Court jury in April 2021 of attempting to import up to $200 million worth of cocaine into Australia.
Three months later, on July 27, the Olympic silver medallist was sentenced to 25 years behind bars, while his younger brother was handed a 28-year jail term.
Dru Baggaley was found to be a principal organiser of the plot and recruiter of another man, Anthony Draper, to go to sea with him.
The now 41-year-old and Draper set off on a rigid-hulled inflatable boat from Brunswick Heads in July 2018, meeting a foreign freighter about 360 kilometres off Queensland's coast about 11 hours later, the court was told.
The men retrieved packages thrown off the other ship but on their return flung them into the sea when pursued by an Australian navy vessel.
Bundles recovered at the time, together with those washed ashore for months after, contained 650 kilograms of white powder containing cocaine worth between $130 million and $200 million.
Dru Baggaley and Draper were arrested before they reached the mainland and Nathan Baggaley taken into custody almost a year later.
An appeal against Dru Baggaley's conviction was adjourned after Justice Jean Dalton said she was "slightly unusually" commenting before the start of proceedings to avoid an undesirable course of raising issues during the hearing.
Dru Baggaley was arguing there was a miscarriage of justice caused by defence counsel's conduct at the trial, the Queensland Court of Appeal was told on Thursday.
"You've chosen to make this the ground of your appeal, it's a big thing to do but if you're going to do it, you have to do it in a way that's proper," Justice Dalton told barrister Saul Holt KC.
The court was concerned that submitted affidavit material only told part of the relevant factual background and it was being asked to make inferences where there was no direct evidence, she said.
The case was adjourned until a date yet to be decided for Mr Holt to take further instructions from Dru Baggaley and solicitors to provide more evidence to the court.
Nathan Baggaley, now 47, has also appealed his conviction, earlier telling the court his lawyers failed to follow his instructions.
It was "incompetent to say the least" that his legal counsel had not argued certain aspects during the earlier appeal proceedings, he said.
