Freeway crash driver’s sentence almost served

Porsche driver Richard Pusey only needs to serve a handful of days more in prison for filming four police officers as they lay dying following last year’s horror Eastern Freeway crash, after a judge ruled his 10 months in custody fulfilled the length of his sentence.

Pusey was yesterday jailed for 10 months after pleading guilty to the rare charge of outraging public decency after filming the aftermath of the Eastern Freeway crash on April 22 last year, when the officers were hit and killed by a truck in Kew.

With 296 days already served, his sentence will be complete over coming days, possibly within a week. However, he is expected to remain in prison on remand for other unrelated charges.

County Court judge Trevor Wraight said Pusey’s conduct in recording footage of the scene, coupled with a running commentary, had to be denounced.

‘‘Your conduct in recording the police officers in their dying moments, together with the words you used as you recorded, was not only derogatory and horrible . . . but it was also callous and reprehensible conduct,’’ Judge Wraight told a court room packed with the officers’ families and other serving members. Pusey watched the sentence, expressionless, on a video link from prison.

‘‘While your complex personality disorder may go some way to explaining your behaviour, it is nonetheless behaviour correctly identified as conduct that outrages public decency and, in my view, represents a serious example.’’

Later in the sentence, the judge told Pusey: ‘‘Your conduct in relation to [the rare charge] was heartless, cruel and disgraceful.’’

Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King and constables Glen Humphris and Josh Prestney were hit and killed when a truck driven by Mohinder Singh, addled by drug use and fatigue, veered into the emergency lane at 5.36pm.

The officers had pulled Pusey over minutes earlier for speeding at 149kmh and were discussing impounding his Porsche when they were hit. Pusey, who had traces of ice and cannabis in his system, was urinating on the side of the road when Singh’s truck hit the officers and the stationary cars.

Pusey is seen on Leading Senior Constable Taylor’s body camera saying: ‘‘There you go.’’

In the two videos Pusey recorded, which ran to three minutes and eight seconds, he zoomed in on the officers’ injuries and damaged cars. While filming a police car he says: ‘‘That is f. . .ing justice. Absolutely amazing, that is f. . .ing amazing.’’

Prosecutors accepted Pusey wasn’t taunting the officers, but he also refused requests by others to help the injured and to stop filming. –