New laws will be introduced today that criminalize seriously offensive conduct in Victoria Parliament in direct response to the 2020 East Freeway tragedy.
Key points:
- The proposed laws criminalize seriously offensive public conduct
- The laws carry a prison sentence of up to five years
- The husband of an officer who died in the tragedy on the east highway proposed the laws
Four police officers were killed after a truck penetrated them while arresting driver Richard Pusey for speeding offenses.
After the crash, Pusey filmed the dying agents while making vulgar comments and later posted the video on Facebook.
He was eventually sentenced to 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to assault on public decency, drug possession, reckless conduct that endangered serious injury and speeding.
Only three months into his sentence were related to his actions in filming the dying officers.
Victoria Attorney General Jaclyn Symes said the new laws are aimed at seriously offensive behavior with a prison sentence of up to five years.
“What we had in the East Freeway tragedy was conduct that we Victorians are appalled at, and what we found was that there really was no crime that fit that behavior,” he said.
“What he exposed, this behavior, was that there was a loophole in the statutory laws and I want to fix that.
“It’s not designed to target low-level offensive behavior. At Victoria we have very high thresholds for offensive language, offensive behavior.”
Chief Agent Kevin King, Chief Agent Lynette Taylor, Officer Joshua Prestney and Officer Glen Humphris were killed in the crash in April 2020. (Supplied by Victoria Police)
The new laws were motivated by calls from Stuart Schulze, whose wife, Chief Agent Lynette Taylor, was one of four officers killed in the crash.
“It allows the courts to make the decision of what they consider most offensive, which is right because as society changes and society changes, what is offensive today will not be tomorrow,” Schulze said.
The new laws appear to have been passed with the support of the Victorian opposition.
“I think it’s a very good proposal, it has obviously come out of a tragic circumstance, but I can’t imagine a circumstance in which the opposition does not support it,” said opposition leader Matthew Guy.
Posted 49 minutes ago 49 minutes ago Wednesday, June 22, 2022 at 12:27 AM, updated 47 minutes ago Wednesday, June 22, 2022 at 12:29 AM