Victoria Corrections report on Richard Pusey disturbing: Judge

Corrections Victoria may be treating Richard Pusey differently from other offenders, sentencing judge warns.

Richard Pusey is due to be sentenced on a number of charges. Picture: Ian Currie

Corrections Victoria has dealt with violent offenders, drug addicts and pedophiles but has a problem with placing notorious Porsche driver Richard Pusey on a community corrections order, a court has heard.

Pusey will be sentenced on Wednesday on one count of reckless conduct endangering life by driving at 147km on the 100km/h freeway, one count of outraging public decency relating to his filming and one count of drug possession.

One possible outcome is County Court Judge Trevor Wraight placing Pusey on a Community Corrections Order, however a last-minute hearing on Tuesday morning heard there was opposition from Corrections Victoria.

Pusey’s barrister Dermot Dann QC said the report came very close to saying Pusey was “too high profile … too challenging” to deal with.

Pusey was pulled over for speeding in his 911 Porsche on April 22 last year but was urinating off the side of the road when drugged truck driver Mohinder Singh swerved into the emergency lane, killing Leading Senior Constable Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King, Constable Glen Humphris and Constable Josh Prestney.

The County Court heard Pusey retrieved his mobile phone from his car and walked around the wreckage, zooming in on the officers’ injuries and describing the scene as “amazing” in his commentary.

“He’s smashed,” Pusey said on a zoom of Constable Humphris, who was trapped between the prime mover and Porsche.

“Look at that, lucky I went and had a p***.”

Judge Wraight said he had requested a “normal short” community corrections report but Corrections Victoria “took it upon themselves” to prepare an extensive pre-sentencing report.

He said Corrections Victoria staff appeared to have treated Pusey differently to other offenders.

“For some reason [they have] taken some special interest in this case … which I find quite disturbing,” Judge Wraight said.

He said the staff had extensively accessed additional material regarding other allegations against Pusey and considered the media attention he had received to be a problem for them.

He said Pusey’s “complex multifaceted personality disorder” also appeared to be an issue for Corrections Victoria which he found “extraordinary” because of the belligerent attitudes of other offenders who were placed on CCOs.

“I‘m just completely puzzled as to why Corrections have treated this case as they have,” he said.

Mr Dann said the report referred to Mr Pusey‘s relationship with his wife and outstanding assault criminal charges but didn’t contact his wife to determine whether she supported him.

“It comes close really to saying he‘s too unpopular, too challenging, too high-profile therefore unsuitable,” he said.

Judge Wraight noted Mr Dann‘s remarks and said the report also didn’t mention the support of Mr Pusey’s parents.

“I would hope really that they‘re not treating him differently to any other defendant but it reads like they are,” he said.

He said the report “completely misreads” the type of personality disorder from which Mr Pusey suffers and refers to his anti-social attitude which Corrections would deal with all the time in other offenders.

“I‘m just astounded by the attitude of Corrections,” Judge Wraight said.

Mr Dann said his client had been subjected to extra curial punishment through media attention and Judge Wraight said the punishment had “arguably continued” in respect to the assessment.

“[The] attitude of Corrections is that he‘s beyond rehabilitation,” Judge Wraight said.

Pusey will be sentenced at 9.30am Wednesday.