The husband of Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor has slammed a three month sentence handed out to Porsche driving monster Richard Pusey.
Pusey, who filmed four dead and dying police officers after a horrific crash could be free in days after being sentenced to a total of 10 months in jail over the crime that disgusted Australia – eight of which was for conduct endangering life.
Ms Taylor’s distraught husband Stuart Schultz fronted the media outside the County Court of Victoria following Pusey’s sentence on Wednesday.
Partner of Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Stuart Schultz (centre) arrives to the County Court of Victoria in Melbourne last month
Millionaire businessman Richard Paul Pusey, 42, was sentenced via videolink on Wednesday in a Melbourne court over the April 22, 2020, crash
Pusey was pulled over for speeding at 149km/h in his black 2016 Porsche 911 on Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway, before a truck crashed into the scene killing all four cops
‘Everytime a media outlet references this offending it is always in reference to the filming of dying police,’ he said.
‘There was only one, and she was my wife. And everytime that commentary is made it tears at my heart and soul. And the pain is almost unbearable.’
Pusey, who remains behind bars for now on a pending assault charge, is expected to make a bid for freedom on bail after already having served 296 days behind bars.
The family of dead officer Josh Prestney stood solemnly next to Mr Schulz as he broke down into tears.
‘I find it to be outraging public decency that a more appropriate sentence was not imposed by this court and it has now set such a bar that this type of offending is almost impossible to reach that level,’ Mr Schultz said.
Pusey was not even in court to hear his sentence.
The 42-year old appeared in the County Court of Victoria via videolink on Wednesday over his now infamous role in the horrific crash on April 22 last year.
Senior Constable Kevin King (pictured, far left), Constable Glen Humphris (second from left), Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor (second from right) and and Constable Josh Prestney (far right) all died in the crash
On Wednesday, Pusey was sentenced to 10 months in jail, a two-year good behaviour bond, fined $1000 and had his licence suspended for two years.
Pusey had been rejected by Corrections Victoria for a community based order, leaving Judge Trevor Wraight with few options.
Pusey pleaded guilty last month to numerous charges including ‘outraging decency’, which hasn’t been used since the 1600s in England.
He also pleaded guilty to conduct endangering serious injury, speeding, possessing a drug of dependence, and some other minor charges.
In sentencing, Judge Wraight accepted Pusey’s guilty plea had brought the case to a prompt conclusion.
The judge told Pusey he was not responsible for the crash that killed the officers, but described his behaviour after it as ‘bizarre’, ‘extremely insensitive’ and ‘heartless’.
‘Your focus was entirely on yourself,’ he said. ”You seemed to take pleasure in the destruction of the police vehicles … Your conduct was heartless cruel and disgraceful.’
Judge Wraight said he accepted Pusey did not directly taunt the officers or upload the footage, such as another witness did but was not charged by police.
The court heard Pusey would have certainly been killed himself had he not gone to urinate and Judge Wraight accepted he must have been in some sort of shock himself at the time of filming.
Pusey had already spend 10 months behind bars while his case filtered through the justice system.
Judge Wraight said Pusey had been ‘demonised’ by the media and the general public during that time, which had played a part in his ultimate sentence.
‘I accept there is evidence of genuine remorse,’ he said.
The unemployed property developer was pulled over for speeding at 149km/h in his black 2016 Porsche 911 on Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway at the time of the tragedy.
As officers discussed impounding his sports car by the side of the road, a truck driven by drugged-up Mohinder Singh crashed into them.
Senior Constable Kevin King, Constable Glen Humphris, Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor and and Constable Josh Prestney all died.
Pusey avoided the crash after he jumped the fence to urinate in some bushes, and emerged to film the scene including close-up shots of the dying officers.
The mortgage broker (pictured in a court sketch) avoided being struck because he’d been urinating off to the side of the road
Pusey’s barrister Dermot Dann QC (right) had argued his client ought be regarded as a victim of crime
Parents of Josh Prestney, Andrew (2nd right) and Belinda Prestney (2nd left) arrive to the County Court of Victoria in Melbourne last month
The court again heard a graphic recounting of the content of the two Pusey videos, adding up to three minutes and eight seconds.
Pusey numerous times said variants of ‘absolutely amazing’ and ‘look at that’ when ‘slowly and purposefully’ surveying the scene and zooming in on the dead officers’ injuries.
At one point he said ‘this is f**king justice’ in the general direction of the road as other motorists went past.
The court heard Pusey first retrieved his two mobile phones and a lunch bag containing drugs from the wreck of his car.
He then turned to Senior Constable Taylor, who was sprawled on top of the Porsche with her legs crushed by the truck and her hand through the sunroof, moaning and near death.
‘There you go,’ he said to her as his camera zoomed in on her face and injuries.
Pusey then wandered around the scene, filming and photographing it along with the horrific injuries suffered by the four officers.
‘Bang, bang, bang, they got thrown all the way over there,’ he said. ‘I think everyone got cleaned up – there’s four people, look at that.’
Soon after he showed a close up of injuries to one of the male officers and said: ‘Oh he’s smashed, look at that. Lucky I went and had a piss.’
Around him, motorists who pulled over upon seeing the crash scene were trying to help the four officers, including a doctor.
This did not stop Pusey’s distasteful comments, as he complained about being pulled over at 149km/h and his beloved car being wrecked.
Richard Pusey was arrested on April 23, one day after the fatal crash which killed four police officers
Partner of Senior Constable Kevin King, Sharron Mackenzie (2nd left) arrives to the County Court of Victoria in Melbourne last month
‘Look at that, man, you f**king c**ts, guess I’ll be getting an Uber home,’ he said.
Bystanders berated him for filming instead of helping the officers, including one who could be seen in the footage pointing at him and saying ‘mate, um, don’t’.
Another man asked for help pulling a blanket over the body of a dead officer, but Pusey refused saying ‘they’re dead’.
The court on earlier occasions heard Pusey was allegedly heard to say as Leading Senior Constable Taylor lay dying: ‘All I wanted to do was go home and eat my sushi and now you have f**ked my f**king car’.
Pusey eventually got a lift from a passing motorist. He sent messages to friends throughout the evening in which he bragged about driving at 300km/h.
The next day he went to his GP, where he showed the videos to the receptionist and two staff at the chemist next door. He then sent the videos to three friends.
Later when interviewed by police he admitted he was ashamed of the videos and what he said during them.
He insisted his comments were not derogatory but acknowledged they seemed that way because the language was ‘horrible’.
Police officers lined the streets during the repatriation ceremony of Constable Glen Humphris at Hovell Tree Park in Albury on May 2
As police were discussing impounding his sports car by the side of the road, a truck driven by drugged-up Mohinder Singh crashed into them
‘That’s just how s**t comes out of my head, I’m highly offensive, I struggle every day to keep my mouth shut,’ he said, likening it to Tourette syndrome.
His barrister, Dermot Dann, QC, had attributed Pusey’s behaviour in the moments after the crash to his position as a victim of crime.
‘That’s the starting point in respect to his conduct. That’s the position he was in. That’s his state. Those are his circumstances when this offence is actually committed,’ Mr Dann said a day earlier.
‘It’s a very unusual – indeed exceptional – position for an accused person to be in in terms of his pleading guilty to a charge that takes place in the immediate aftermath of him – as a victim – which really we’d normally regard him as, of a very serious piece of criminal behaviour.’
Mr Dann had attempted to paint ‘a worrying picture of a man afflicted with serious mental illnesses’.
He told the court the serial offender had borderline personality disorder, anti-social personality disorder, and an anti-authority complex.
‘Amongst all the hatred and condemnation, there is a part for sympathy and mercy,’ he said.
He repeatedly tried to get the help since the crash, only to be turned away by some hospitals, the barrister added.
Mr Dann said the ‘severe personality disorders’ dated back to when Pusey was bullied about his name in school.
He claimed the last time ‘outraging decency’ had been used was back in 1640 and had nothing to do with what his client had faced.
‘It’s not the filming that is said to justify the charge, but it’s the comments … the comments are essentially comments to himself,’ Mr Dann said.
Pusey is expected to make an application for bail in the Supreme Court of Victoria over an assault charge.
That charge relates to an allegation Pusey forced his wife to watch as he placed a noose around his own neck in the lead-up to Christmas last year.
Read the full sentence here.
Pusey fashioned a noose and put around his neck during a December 27 incident on the rooftop of his home, and told police who attended the scene to shoot him
Pusey was kicked out of school just a few week into Year 10 and worked as tram driver and nurse without much success before becoming a successful finance broker (pictured)