Charlie Stevens’ family, friends, will confront the man responsible for his death in two months’ time
A judge has set a date for the man responsible for Charlie Stevens’ death to face sentencing submissions – and the hearing will be anything but brief.
Police & Courts
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The careless hit-run driver who killed Charlie Stevens will face a two-hour sentencing submissions hearing in two months’ time – with prosecutors saying there will be “quite a number of victim impact statements”.
Dhirren Singh Randhawa’s counsel, meanwhile, have told the District Court they will tender an expert report on their client, to be written by one of the state’s top forensic psychologists.
Originally charged with causing death by dangerous driving, Randhawa, 19, of Encounter Bay, instead pleaded guilty to one aggravated count of driving without due care.
The circumstance of aggravation is that Mr Stevens died as a result of his carelessness behind the wheel.
Randhawa’s admission to that charge, and to having left the crash scene, were accepted by prosecutors in June after months of out-of-court negotiations.
Expert reports about the night of the collision, including crash reconstruction and toxicology analysis, were highly relevant to those negotiations.
Randhawa – who wrote an apology letter to the Stevens family – faces a maximum 12-month prison term and minimum six-month licence disqualification for careless driving.
The maximum penalty for leaving an accident scene after causing death is a five years jail.
In court on Friday, Director of Public Prosecutions Martin Hinton KC asked Judge Joanne Tracey to set a date for sentencing submissions.
“We anticipate we will need about two hours, there are quite a number of victim impact statements,” he said.
Jane Abbey KC, for Randhawa, said her pre-sentencing materials were underway.
“There will be a report by Dr Lorraine Lim, and it will be available by (the submissions date),” she said.
Judge Tracey said she was unable to hear submissions in September, as she was on circuit in the regional courts that month.
She remanded Randhawa on continuing bail until October.
Randhawa did not comment outside court.
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