Pusey back of mind for grieving brother of fallen officer
The brother of a police officer killed in the Eastern Freeway tragedy says he tries not to dwell on Richard Pusey, who could walk free in days.
Police & Courts
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The brother of one of the four police officers killed in the Eastern Freeway tragedy said Richard Pusey is “not worth the time” after his sentence was handed down on Tuesday.
Alex Prestney said he did not want to think about the man that filmed his brother, Constable Joshua Prestney, as he lay dying on the road.
“I don’t have any feelings for him,” he said.
“He’s not worth the time.
“He and everyone else who have (sic) done that sort of thing can live with that.”
Mr Prestney said his priority was to remember his brother, who he described as a “very professional person”.
“I love telling people about Josh because he was a professional with everything he honed into,” he told the Today Show.
“Josh, he was a very professional person with the way he went about things, especially with the job.
“He listened, he followed what everyone else had to say. He was very respectful about that.
“He was a guitarist and a keen triathlete as well and a police officer.”
Mr Prestney said he does not dwell on Pusey’s sentence, but instead has chosen to surround himself with loved ones.
“What I’m dwelling on is losing my brother,” he said.
“How to live without him, that should be the focal point.
“The most important thing is to rally around your family.”
Grieving families of the officers killed blasted the punishment handed down to speeding Porsche driver Richard Pusey.
Pusey has been jailed for 10 months after filming dying and dead police officers in the aftermath of the truck crash, while remarking “that’s justice”.
The sentence could mean Richard Pusey, 42, will walk free in less than a week, having already spent 296 days behind bars on remand.
The families of Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King, Constable Josh Prestney and Constable Glen Humphris — the four officers killed in the Kew crash on April 22 last year — packed the County Court courtroom to hear what punishment the mortgage broker would get.
It comes after a County Court judge once described Pusey as “probably the most hated man in Australia”.
Outside court, Stuart Schulze, the husband of Sen Constable Taylor, fought back tears as he blasted Pusey’s punishment as “totally inappropriate”.
Mr Schulze, a former police officer himself, took aim at the court for setting the bar so low on the outraging public decency charge and sending a message to would-be offenders they could get away with such acts.
“It is difficult to comprehend that the court did not seem to understand that when the evidence of an outraging behaviour was bought before it, it was its duty to set the appropriate standard,” Mr Schulze said.
“This is the expectation of the community. It’s a sad reflection on this court finding that this sentence is totally inappropriate.
“I find it to be outraging public decency that an appropriate sentence was not imposed by this court.”
He said the court’s decision not to include victim impact statements from the public was probably the right one “as it may have had to go through several hundred thousand statements from outraged members of our community”.
Mr Schulze said every time he reads or hears the phrase that Pusey filmed a dying policewoman, being his wife, “it tears my heart and soul”.
“The pain is almost unbearable,” he said.
Standing alongside Mr Schulze, Constable Prestney’s dad, Andrew Prestney also reflected on how the court’s decision had not met community standards.
“I think we are all just relieved that another process has finished in regards to all of this,” Mr Prestney said.
“No matter what has happened in these buildings around us, that is not a reflection on who we are as Victorians.
“The overwhelming majority of Victorians are decent people.
“They have the utmost respect for the police and the law, and this was evident last week in the one-year anniversary.”
Asked if he accepted Pusey’s apology, Mr Prestney said: “We acknowledge it, but I don’t think that’s going to change that person. I think there’s obviously going to be some issues ongoing.”
Police Association chief Wayne Gatt, speaking outside court, sent a strong message to Pusey.
“A judgment for people like this … it doesn’t happen at court,” Mr Gatt said.
“But it will happen. Each and every one of us will face our mortality one day. When his day comes, I hope that he faces the same coldness and the same callousness with which he provided my members when they faced theirs.
“Four upstanding heroes died on that day, and that one coward, one soulless coward lived.
“In sentencing, the judge made some remarks from Mr Pusey himself where he reflected on his own self worth. It’s perhaps the only thing I’ll ever agree with Mr Pusey on.
“He’s a worthless individual that lacks any human trait that would be and should be, and is a feature of the Victorian community at large.”
Mr Gatt said Pusey showed a “lack of kindness” and “utter contempt” in his filming of the aftermath of the crash when other members of the community showed “deep respect and support” and rendered support and assistance.
PUSEY’S BEHAVIOUR ‘REPREHENSIBLE’: JUDGE
Judge Trevor Wraight described Pusey’s filming of the crash scene, where he zoomed in on the horrific injuries of the officers instead of helping, as “heartless, cruel and disgraceful”.
He continued that Pusey’s conduct was not only derogatory and horrible, as Pusey himself described to police in his record of interview, but also “callous and reprehensible”.
Judge Wraight said Pusey’s personality disorder may go to explain some of his behaviour, but that it was still a serious example of the outraging public decency charge.
— Read the full sentencing remarks here
In an hour-long sentencing, Judge Wraight pointed out that Pusey was not responsible for the deaths of the four police officers.
“What must be made clear at the outset is that you are not being sentenced for causing or contributing to the death of the four police officers,” Judge Wraight told Pusey.
“While that may be a trite statement to those present, given the nature of the publicity as a result of your conduct … there are some reports in the community that suggest you somehow caused the death of the police officers.”
Judge Wraight accepted Pusey’s apology to the families of the fallen officers at an earlier pre-sentencing hearing was “genuine”.
He said Pusey deserved a significant discount for his early guilty pleas and for the demonisation he faced from the public and the media.
Pusey had been stopped by the officers for speeding when a truck — driven by drug-addled Mohinder Singh — veered into the emergency lane where the officers were standing on April 22 last year.
Pusey last month pleaded guilty to outraging public decency, reckless conduct endangering serious injury and possessing drugs of dependence.
But Pusey would not automatically get released on Wednesday, because he is on remand on pending charges relating to an assault on a woman during a rooftop rampage in December.
He would have to apply for bail in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on that matter to be freed.
Judge Wraight also ordered he make a promise to the court to be of good behaviour for two years. Pusey obliged.
It comes after Judge Wraight said he could free Pusey from jail on a community-based order, despite Corrections Victoria saying it wanted nothing to do with him.
Corrections told the court the millionaire menace was “beyond rehabilitation” and unsuitable for a community correction order.
They said Pusey’s unpopularity made him too hard for it to manage.
That call was slammed by the judge, who on Tuesday described it as “disturbing”.
He said Corrections staff dealt with crooks from violent offenders to paedophiles with “bad attitudes” daily.
“I am just astounded by the attitude of Corrections,” Judge Wraight said.
“It is really an attitude that is because of the media attention he has received, that somehow that is going to be a problem for them.
The judge had Pusey assessed for a CCO as he considered his options on how to punish him.
A CCO is designed to have a perpetrator be under the watchful eye of a Corrections case worker in the community, with conditions including undergoing treatment for drug, alcohol and mental health, or completing behaviour management courses.
‘LIGHT’ SENTENCE SLAMMED
Victorian opposition leader Michael O’Brien said he believed many Victorians would think Pusey’s sentence was light.
“What Richard Pusey did was disgusting, it was abhorrent,” he said.
“The courts have decided that 10 months is an appropriate sentence.
“I think a lot of Victorians might think that’s a little bit light on … but we need to remember that it wasn’t Pusey who caused the death of those four poor police officers.”
Opposition police spokesman David Southwick said the justice system had failed.
“The sentencing of Richard Pusey will come as a devastating disappointment to the families of the fallen officers, Victoria Police and the broader Victorian community,” Mr Southwick tweeted on Wednesday.
“The justice system has failed and shows the need for an overhaul that places victims at its core.”
Justice Party MP Stuart Grimley also slammed Pusey’s “inhumane” actions.
“The 10-month jail sentence Richard Pusey received will never reflect the disgust and contempt the community has for him,” he wrote on Twitter.
“What he did was un-Australian, abhorrent and inhumane. He doesn’t deserve the compassion he received in his sentence today, as he showed none to our police.”
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