Victim’s family wants Eugene McGee disbarred

Hit-run lawyer Eugene McGee is profiting from his drawn-out prosecution and using it to fuel a drink-driving law practice, the widow of his victim says.

Di Gilcrist, widow of Ian Humphrey, yesterday attacked the former police officer for trading on his “stigma” to make a living.

She was upset to learn that, one day after Mr McGee and his brother were acquitted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice charges, legal websites continue to boast his expertise in driving matters.

“He is actually profiting from the experience and the stigma that the case has afforded him,” she said.

“Law is a professionally based system and here we have this man practising law after killing someone and fleeing the scene for whatever reason. I find it amazing, but not surprising.”

Mr Humphrey’s distraught parents and brother said Mr McGee should be immediately disbarred so he can no longer profit from incidents on the roads.

“For a man that is an ex-policeman and a man of the law . . . he’s supposed to be an upstanding man of the community and yet he’s still practising,” brother Graham Humphrey said. “How he can go and do what he’s done, and then still practise, I don’t know – he should be struck off as a lawyer.”

Mr Humphrey’s mother, Eileen, agreed. “I’m just disappointed he’s still practising,” she said. “Through all of this I wasn’t bothered about him going to jail but I do think he should have been struck off.”

In 2005, Mr McGee was acquitted of causing Mr Humphrey’s death by dangerous driving, but pleaded guilty to driving without due care.

He was fined $3100. Following a Royal Commission and numerous appeal hearings, he and his brother Craig were tried for – and ultimately acquitted of – conspiring to attempt to pervert the course of justice.

Prosecutors had alleged Mr McGee, who had been drinking in the afternoon, had avoided police following the crash that killed Mr Humphrey on the Gawler to Kapunda Rd.

Inquiries by The Advertiser have found Mr McGee is still listed with the Law Society as a practising solicitor. Legal sources said he considers drink driving “among his specialties”.

Websites advertising his practice, Adelaide Criminal Law, list Mr McGee as a defence lawyer for charges of drink driving, culpable driving and dangerous driving offences as well as a range of other criminal offences.

In 2005, Attorney General Michael Atkinson requested Mr McGee be suspended from practising law.