police line
Representation image. ValynPi14/ Pixabay

An Australian man was sentenced to 10 months in jail for filming and mocking police officers as they lay dying in a car crash scene.

Richard Pusey, 42, pleaded guilty to outraging public decency when he shot the harrowing incident on his phone instead of helping the officers. The charge is rarely prosecuted in the state of Victoria, the last one being in 1963, according to New York Times.

In April 2020, Pusey was overspeeding along Melbourne's Eastern Freeway, driving his Porsche at 93mph. He was flagged by four police officers who were looking to impound his sports car when they were struck by a truck that drove off its lane.

Pusey, who avoided the crash, did not help the officers but instead started filming as they struggled to survive.

"There you go. Amazing, absolutely amazing," Pusey can be heard saying in one of the officer's body cameras, BBC noted.

"All I wanted was to go home and have some sushi." He then went on an expletive-laden rant that included the words "justice," "absolutely amazing" and "beautiful."

He also told one bystander who came to help the victims that they were already "dead."

"Your conduct in recording the police officers in their dying moments, together with the words you used as you recorded, was not only derogatory and horrible... but it was also callous and reprehensible conduct," Judge Trevor Wraight said during the sentencing.

Pusey was sentenced to 10 months in jail, a fine of AU$1,000 and a driving ban of two years. Having been in custody for close to 300 days, his sentence will be counted as time served and he will likely complete his sentence within the next few days.