NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb is expected to resign from her role within weeks after three years as top cop.
She is reportedly planning to quit the job on May 18 following speculation in January her tenure as commissioner would end in 2025.
Commissioner Webb has been criticised for her handling of a series of high-profile cases in the state, most recently the death of 19-year-old Audrey Griffin.
Ms Griffin was found dead at Erina Creek on the Central Coast on March 22 following a night out celebrating with friends at Gosford Hotel. An initial autopsy indicated the talented athlete had drowned.
Ms Webb defended detectives after the teenager’s mother, Kathleen Kirby, revealed she had pleaded with them to make her daughter’s murder a priority.
Ms Kirby and Audrey’s father, Trevor Griffith, pushed for further investigations and begged to be shown CCTV footage of Audrey the night she disappeared – which revealed a man appearing to follow the teenager as she walked home.
A CCTV image was then released more than three weeks after Audrey’s body had been found, prompting a woman to contact police and tell them the man looked like her ex-husband who had threatened her on the night the teen died.
Adrian Noel Torrens, 53, was then arrested and charged with murder following police catching him confessing to the murder while under surveillance. Days later he took his own life in Silverwater jail.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb (pictured) is expected to resign from her role within weeks after three years as top cop
Commissioner Karen Webb said on 60 Minutes on Sunday night that initial confusion over the cause of the 19-year-old’s death was due to a lack of evidence.
She acknowledged police had mistakenly ruled Ms Griffin’s death as ‘misadventure’ before her mother pleaded with officers to review the security footage. ‘That was based on the medical advice,’ Ms Webb said.
The top cop insisted officers had a ‘cop instinct’ and doggedly kept pursuing the case despite no details getting released to the media and Ms Kirby having to go into the station and push for the CCTV to be reviewed.
The state’s Homicide Squad detectives also remained sidelined from the case for a number of weeks, despite consultation from local detectives.
Asked whether the case could have been better handled, Ms Webb said: ‘Could this be better, more perfect? Yes.
‘But, did we catch a killer? Yes.’
Ms Webb also came under fire after it was revealed Torrens was convicted in January of breaking an AVO and handed a Community Corrections Order in lieu of a sentence.
‘I can say as the police commissioner, I’m certainly frustrated because a get out of jail free card is no the answer for people like Torrens,’ she said.
Commissioner Webb (pictured) has been criticised for her handling of a series of high-profile cases in the state, most recently the death of 19-year-old Audrey Griffin
‘We wouldn’t be in this position, I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you, Audrey wouldn’t be dead if he had have been held in custody.
‘He should have been locked up. A Community Corrections Order for someone who has a violent history is no answer.’
The police commissioner was also criticised for her approach to the alleged murders of Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29, following their deaths on February 19, 2024.
Former police officer Beaumont Lamarre-Condon, 28, remains behind bars charged with two counts of murder of his former lover and new boyfriend.
Australians reacted with outrage over allegations the two men were shot dead with Lamarre-Condon’s NSW police-issued Glock at Baird’s home in Paddington.
Ms Webb called for a review of the issue, storage and movement of firearms in the police force and last November announced new gun handling laws.
But she was also accused of going into hiding in the days after the double murders.
More to come.
