The Australian: Premier ‘averted fair trial’ - 6 October, 2006

Lawyers representing Adelaide solicitor Eugene McGee and his brother Craig claim South Australian Premier Mike Rann and Attorney-General Michael Atkinson have prevented their clients from receiving a fair trial. The McGee brothers are facing charges of conspiring to pervert the course of justice on the night Eugene hit and killed cyclist Ian Humphrey while driving on a country road in 2003.

The brothers appeared in the South Australian District Court on Tuesday, where lawyers Jon Lister and Lindy Powell lodged an application to permanently stay the charge on the grounds there had been an “abuse of process”. In a District Court hearing before judge Wayne Chivell yesterday, The Australian won the right to view the reasons why Mr Lister and Ms Powell claimed the charges should be suspended.

Caroline Mealor, representing the Director of Public Prosecutions, failed in an attempt to have the details suppressed during the hearing, after arguing their publication would prevent a fair trial.

The Australian can reveal that Mr Lister and Ms Powell claimed a future trial would not be fair because there had been “extensive” publicity surrounding the initial trial, the subsequent royal commission and the current trial.

They claim the opinions of the Premier and Attorney-General amounted to “prejudgment at the highest level”.

“The content and effect of the publicity surrounding the trial of (Eugene McGee), the verdict at the trial, the sentence imposed … the royal commission, the DPP’s decision to prosecute this information and the publication of the opinions of members of executive government both before and after the charging of the applicant and his co-accused results in the inability of the applicant to have a fair trial,” the lawyers say in the application.

“The publication at large of the opinions of the Premier and the Attorney-General about the events forming the particulars of this charge has amounted to prejudgment at the highest level of the applicant’s guilt, thereby rejecting the possibility of a fair trial.” Eugene McGee, a well-known criminal lawyer and a former police prosecutor, was found guilty of driving without due care on the night he killed Humphrey before fleeing the scene. It was later found he had drunk wine at a long lunch before the accident. Police did not breath test him that night.

He was fined $3100 and disqualified from driving for 12 months in April last year.

Mr Rann then established a royal commission into the police investigation and McGee trial.

The Kapunda Road Royal Commission criticised the police department and claimed its investigation was “inefficient and inappropriate”. Evidence presented during the commission found the McGee brothers failed to identify themselves when they were stopped at a police roadblock that evening.

Soon after the findings were released, the DPP recommended charges be laid against the pair regarding their activities in the hours after Eugene hit Humphrey. Prosecutors have alleged that the brothers obstructed the police investigation into Eugene’s involvement in the crash.

Both brothers pleaded not guilty to the charges in an Adelaide Magistrates Court hearing in August.