Former TV newsreader Georgina McGuinness steps in as PR for accused Charlie Stevens killer driver
The family of Dhirren Randhawa has engaged a PR expert and former political media advisor, Georgina McGuinness, ahead of the accused’s first court appearance.
Police & Courts
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Former television newsreader Georgina McGuinness has stepped in as a public relations crisis manager for the teenager accused of killing the state’s top cop’s son in a hit-run crash.
Dhirren Randhawa, 18, is accused of fatally striking 18-year-old Charlie Stevens, whose father is Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, at Goolwa Beach during Schoolies celebrations on Friday night.
The accused’s family engaged a high-powered King’s Counsel legal silk and Mrs McGuinness as a media adviser ahead of Dhirren’s first court appearance on Monday.
Dhirren, a former Fleurieu Peninsula apprentice barber, has yet to plead to causing death by dangerous driving and the lesser, alternative charge of aggravated driving without due care.
The apprentice barber and Victor Harbor High School graduate is further charged with leaving the scene of a crash after causing death and failing to truly answer questions.
Mrs McGuinness, who presented the TV news as Georgina Allen and Georgina Thomas before her marriage to former Adelaide Crows captain Tony McGuinness in 1999, joined Nine News as a reporter in 1987 after graduating university.
In 1989, she was appointed as a news anchor and spent more than 25 years presenting the network’s weekend bulletin, as well as working as a senior journalist, sub-editor, producer and chief of staff.
Mrs McGuinness was the anchor of a short-lived local version of A Current Affair in 2002, and co-presented the annual Christmas Pageant telecast until 2007.
In October 2011, the Nine Network announced her contract would not be renewed.
Mrs McGuinness went on to join then-state opposition leader Isobel Redmond as a speechwriter before moving to act as senior adviser for former premier Steven Marshall.
Mrs McGuinness now runs her own PR firm, McGuinness Media, having worked with SA-based clients including the SA Liberal Party, law firm Duncan Basheer Hannon, Klemich Real Estate and the Glenelg Football Club, and national and international organisations.
In a statement released via Mrs McGuinness, who is representing the family pro-bono, Dhirren’s mother expressed her sorrow amid a flood of tributes for Charlie, an apprentice carpenter and former Mercedes College student.
“I extend my deepest possible sympathies to the Stevens family and my heart is breaking to think of the suffering and pain they are experiencing,” she said.
“Out of respect and acknowledging that this is now a matter for the courts, I won’t be saying anything further at this time.”
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