South Australian Police Commissioner Grant Stevens has stood before the young man who struck and caused the death of his son Charlie in a hit-and-run crash and spoke of his family’s deep and enduring anguish.
Dhirren Randhawa, the 19-year-old who was behind the wheel of the car in the Goolwa crash in November last year, appeared in the Adelaide District Court on Thursday for sentencing submissions.
“Not a single day goes by when we don’t talk about Charlie, when we don’t talk about him together, there is not a day when we don’t shed a tear thinking about our son and how much we miss him,” Mr Stevens said.
“Charlie would have been 19 on the 28th of April this year, but instead of celebrating it, it took all our efforts just to get through the day.
“And we know that that grief is with us for the rest of our lives.”
Charlie suffered irreversible brain damage in the crash and died at Flinders Medical Centre aged 18.
Randhawa has pleaded guilty to aggravated driving without due care and leaving an accident scene after causing death.
The Stevens family filed into the court and sat quietly, while Randhawa stood before them in the dock.
Mr Stevens looked directly at Randhawa before speaking.
“We acknowledge you have taken responsibility for what you have done and we are sure this has been difficult for you,” he told the young man.
“But you get to move on and the people close to you still have you in their lives. We don’t have Charlie and we want you to remember that.”
Charlie’s sister Sophie Tregloan spoke about feeling “physically sick” after receiving the phone call from her mother Emma telling her Charlie had been hit by a car.
“You have taken so much from us in a split second dumb decision,” she said.
“It’s Charlie’s heart I will most the most. He was kind, inclusive of all, a pillar of strength.”
Randhawa delivered an apology to the Stevens’ family.
“You’re always on my mind and so is Charlie and you will be forever,” he said.
“There’s so much I’d like to say but mostly I want to say I’m sorry, and I’m sorry Charlie.”
Randhawa’s mother Amreeta Stara wept as she expressed her devastation over the event.
“Words cannot adequately convey the sorrow and regret that I feel for this devastating incident,” she said.
She spoke of the “emotional and mental turmoil” that has gripped her family since November.
“It has traumatically changed our lives forever,” she said.
Judge Joanne Tracey is considering an appropriate sentence for Randhawa, who is on bail.
Randhawa struck Charlie at night while Charlie was out celebrating schoolies with friends at Goolwa Beach, south of Adelaide.
The court was told Randhawa accelerated, though not to the point of breaking the speed limit, in the moments before the crash.
Jane Abbey KC, appearing for Randhawa, said the parties accepted “Mr Randhawa ought to have kept a better attention to any risk that might have presented itself out of darkness on the other side of the road.”
“And it was incumbent on him (Dhirren) to keep a better look out to the opposite side of the road.”
The court was also told Randhawa had accelerated towards Charlie and his friends knowing they were on or had just been on the roadway.
Randhawa was not intoxicated at the time of the crash, the court was told.
Ms Abbey asked Judge Tracey to suspend any sentence she might impose on Randhawa, arguing his youth, good character, early pleas and deep and genuine remorse made him a good prospect for rehabilitation.
“His future and the community’s future are better should he not be incarcerated,” she said.
She also noted that he could face deportation to Kuala Lumpur if he was imprisoned, even though he has lived much of his life in Australia where most of his family connections are based.
Director of Public Prosecutions Martin Hinton KC argued a term of imprisonment was appropriate to maintain a principle of “general deterrence”.
“General deterrence must move drivers to have regard to the safety and rights of other road users on the road, including pedestrians, crossing the road,” he said.
He also said the case was “unique” because of the wide public response to Charlie’s death and Mr Stevens’ position as the police commissioner.
“It is unique because the death of Charlie Stevens has touched the community broadly,” he said.
“Grief has been expressed widely and deeply. In some quarters it has been inappropriately expressed.
“An expression of how offending of this kind can impact the community, reflects the impact it has upon the community’s sense of safety.
“The commissioner’s son, with all the might and power the commissioner has, could not be protected.
“That touched us all. The court has a role in restoring as best it can, the sense of safety the community expects in its road traffic laws and in their enforcement.
“And that is now tested in a deterrent sentence. A sentence that brings home to offenders what the expectations of the community are.”
Judge Tracey listed October 22 for her sentence.
The Stevens family left the court into waiting cars after the submissions.
Randhawa declined to answer any questions leaving the court.
