Melbourne Porsche driver Richard Pusey released from custody after being sentenced to time served
Notorious Melbourne Porsche driver Richard Pusey has walked free from custody donning sunglasses and a mask that read “fake news” after pleading guilty to the assault of a woman.
Pusey on Wednesday morning faced an online Melbourne magistrates court hearing where he was convicted and sentenced to 120 days in prison – time he has already served.
The 43-year-old was later released from Ravenhall correctional centre wearing sunglasses, a headdress, a mask that read “fake news” and a Tshirt with the slogan “Get me Oprah”.
Pusey earlier this week pleaded guilty to unlawfully assaulting a woman at his Fitzroy home in December by dragging her by the wrist up two flights of stairs.
He also pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to harass a Westpac bank employee in August 2019 after a credit card dispute.
In the late-night messages, Pusey called the bank worker a “fuckwit cunt” before making sexual comments about their wife and a reference to their daughter’s second birthday.
Magistrate Hayley Bate said Pusey had used “abhorrent” language in his “relentless pursuit” of the bank worker. She also said the woman he assaulted at Fitzroy in December would have been “terrified” and described his interactions with police as “repugnant”.
“There is a clear pattern of behaviour,” the magistrate said. “He is a man who, in a range of settings, deliberately seeks to interfere with the sense of safety of those who encounter him.”
Bate sentenced Pusey to time already served, meaning he was released immediately, with a further two months to be served if he doesn’t meet the requirements of a two-year good behaviour order.
The magistrate also handed Pusey $3,300 worth of fines for two separate road rage incidents, which he also pleaded guilty to this week. She said he had shown no genuine signs of remorse and had “guarded” rehabilitation prospects.
The 43-year-old’s barrister, Carmen Randazzo SC, said she was grateful for her client’s release from custody but
concerned about his future safety.
“Mr Pusey has of course endured quite a degree of punishment at the hands of the press,” Randazzo said. “He needs to engage with his rehabilitation and be permitted the opportunity to become a fully fledged community supporter.”
Pusey was jailed in April for 10 months – mostly time already served in custody – for filming police officers who died after being hit by a truck while pulling over his Porsche on Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway last year.
Senior constables Lynette Taylor and Kevin King, and constables Glen Humphris and Josh Prestney, died when a truck veered into the emergency lane on 22 April 2020 while they were impounding Pusey’s luxury car.
The former mortgage broker has also been banned for 10 years by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission from providing financial and credit services or engaging in financial and credit activities because of his lying on paperwork.