Richard Pusey: Lawyers argue public outrage charge should be thrown out
The Porsche driver who filmed a dying policewoman in the Eastern Freeway smash is no different to witnesses who filmed the Bourke Street terror attack, his lawyer claims.
Police & Courts
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Witnesses who filmed the Bourke St terror attack were no different to the Porsche driver who filmed a dying policewoman in the Eastern Freeway crash, his lawyer claims.
It’s also been revealed a second person took footage of the crash scene and uploaded it to social media but was never charged.
Richard Pusey’s barrister Dermot Dann, QC, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday as he pushed for the offence of outraging public decency alleged against the Porsche driver to be dropped.
Mr Dann said the charge was “ill-fitted” and “unrecognisable” in Australia.
He argued it would be difficult to prove Mr Pusey had outraged the community when the public was readily exposed to disturbing and distressing images.
He referred to the footage of police taking down terrorist Hassan Shire Ali on Bourke St after he killed Melbourne identity Sisto Malsapina in November 2018.
“When you look at that footage you see a crowd of people using their mobile phones to film,” he said.
“Rightly or wrongly that is the environment we are now in, people are exposed to that type of material.”
Mr Dann said another witness also filmed the crash scene and went further in uploading it to social media, but was never charged.
He also claimed Mr Pusey’s filming was not the same as the “extreme behaviour” of a British man found guilty of outraging public decency when he urinated on a dying disabled woman.
“That’s in a completely different league to what we are dealing with in this case,” Mr Dann said.
Magistrate Donna Bakos interjected: “Well it is extreme behaviour here.”
Prosecutor Robyn Harper had highlighted the UK case of Anthony Anderson, who was jailed for three years in 2007 after filming himself laughing and saying “This is YouTube material” as he defiled a disabled woman as she lay dying in the street.
She said the charge was a rare common law offence that descends from England, with just six examples of it being prosecuted in Australia.
“This offence has been dealt with in this very court,” Ms Harper said, pointing out that a magistrate imposed a one-month jail term for the offence on August 8, 2014.
Mr Pusey, 42, is facing 15 charges after four Victoria Police officers – Leading Sen Constable Lynette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King, Constable Josh Prestney and Constable Glen Humphris – were killed when hit by a truck after they had intercepted him for allegedly speeding on April 22.
The mortgage broker is not charged over their deaths.
But he is facing charges including reckless conduct endangering life, failing to render assistance and destroying evidence — along with the common law offence of committing an act outraging public decency after he allegedly filmed the horrific crash scene and the officers’ dead bodies.
Ms Harper said Mr Pusey focused on the victims and made two recordings totalling three minutes and eight seconds.
“A number of people at the scene in statements indicated an annoyance or distaste to his actions,” she said.
The graphic footage allegedly shows Mr Pusey zoom in on Leading Sen Constable Taylor as she was dying, remarking: “There you go. Absolutely amazing. All I wanted to do was go home and have my sushi. Now you’ve f…ked my f…king car.”
Mr Pusey, wearing a prison-issued green jumper and a mask, appeared in the virtual hearing from Melbourne Assessment Prison.
He sat quietly while submissions were made, but interjected at one stage to offer Ms Bakos some advice to fix technical difficulties she was experiencing.
The hearing was adjourned for further submissions on October 7.
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