Porsche-driving, boy-racing feral-in-a-suit Richard Pusey outraged many social media users earlier this year when he was accused of filming and berating dead and dying police officers on a Melbourne highway. But did he “outrage public decency”? That’s what a Victorian court has been asked to decide, after a judge ruled that the centuries-old and rarely-used charge should stand.
Mortgage broker Richard Pusey faces multiple charges in relation to a horror crash that left four police officers dead on Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway on April 22.
The 42-year-old failed to have a charge of outraging public decency thrown out after his lawyers argued it had never been used in Australian history.
The type of charge dated back 400 years to England and there were no examples of it being used since, barrister Dermot Dann QC previously argued[…]
But on Wednesday Magistrate Donna Bakos ruled that the charge should stay.
Pusey is also facing charges of reckless conduct endangering serious injury, reckless conduct endangering life and possess a drug of dependence.
Four other charges were thrown out of court including fail to render assistance, destruction of evidence and two counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice by Ms Bakos in the Melbourne Magistrates Court.
Pusey has quite the rap sheet, including jail time, with convictions for assault, speeding, stalking and many more. He was also previously filmed screaming abuse at a cancer survivor: “Get some more cancer, you stupid f..king slut. I hope you f..king die”.
All-round nice bloke, it seems.
Ms Bakos found there was enough evidence to support a conviction for the controversial charge of outraging public decency.
Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King and constables Glen Humphris and Josh Prestney were killed in the crash involving a truck driven by another man.
The businessman is accused of recording the shock freeway scene on his mobile instead of helping Constable Taylor as she lay dying on the road.
“Now you’ve f..cked my f..king car,” he allegedly said at the time.
The crash happened after police had stopped Pusey for speeding, and then a truck careered into the emergency lane.
The driver of the truck, 47-year-old Mohinder Singh Bajwa was charged with four counts of culpable driving. Mohinder was allegedly suffering “an undiagnosed psychiatric illness” at the time and supposedly claimed that he swerved to “avoid hitting a witch”. It was further claimed that drug paraphernalia was found in the cab of Mohinder’s truck.
The question remains, though: does a mediaeval crime merit a mediaeval punishment? I helpfully submit that a day or two in the stocks might be fitting, m’lud.
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