SYDNEY: An Australian mortgage broker has been imprisoned for 10 months for filming and mocking police officers as they lay dying after being hit by a truck on Melbourne’s Eastern freeway last year.
The incident occurred on 22 April last year when Richard Pusey, 42, had been pulled over for speeding at least 150km in his Porsche sports car when a truck driver smashed into the emergency lane.
The 42-year-old remained safe as he was urinating behind a bush. Instead of helping the dying officers on the spot, the cold-hearted filmed them. ‘Smashed, justice, absolutely amazing and beautiful, he can be heard saying in the recorded video. Adding that ‘I think everyone got cleaned up, I guess I’ll be getting a … Uber home, huh’.
Amid the fatal accident, when a bystander, who came to aid the dying law enforcers, asked Pusey to help, he responded ‘They’re dead’, and continued recording them on camera.
The convicted Aussie was sentenced by Judge Wraight, who accepted Pusey’s guilty plea, the ABC News reported. The judge remarked that he was not responsible for the crash but described his behaviour as extremely insensitive and heartless.
“Your focus was entirely on yourself and you seemed to take pleasure in the destruction of the police vehicles. Your conduct was heartless cruel and disgraceful,” the judge further said.
Pusey also convicted for speeding offenses and possession of, Ecstasy – a psychoactive drug, which he tested positive for, along with marijuana, in roadside saliva testing after he was pulled over. He was also fined $773 and was disqualified from driving for two years.
He has already been in police custody for nearly 300 days whereas the families of the victims seemed angered with the short sentence as the matter stirred a huge public outcry.
The wife of one of the officers killed described the sentence as ‘too lenient and totally inappropriate’.
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