Karen Webb set to resign from NSW Police

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb is expected to resign from her role within weeks after three years as top cop. 

The commissioner is reportedly planning to quit on May 18 following speculation in January her tenure as commissioner would end in 2025. 

Opposition leader Mark Speakman thanked Ms Webb for her ‘long and loyal service’ to the police force following the revelations on Wednesday. 

‘The Minns Labor Government must now move quickly to confirm who will lead the force. Our police do an extraordinary job and deserve strong, steady leadership,’ he told the Daily Telegraph. 

Her rumoured resignation comes after Ms Webb was criticised for her handling of a series of high-profile cases, 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. 

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb (pictured) is expected to resign from her role within weeks after three years as top cop

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.

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 had been handed a Community Corrections Order in lieu of a jail sentence after he breached an AVO. 

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

‘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. 

‘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 Baird, his former lover, and his new boyfriend. 

Australians reacted with outrage after it was revealed the men were shot dead with Lamarre-Condon’s police-issued Glock at Baird’s home in Paddington. 

Ms Webb called for an immediate review of the issue, storage and movement of firearms in the police force and in November announced new gun handling laws. 

But she was also accused of going into hiding in the days after the double shooting and saying she was ‘grateful’ to Lamarre-Condon for cooperating with police. 

Sunrise host Nat Barr confronted Karen Webb following the alleged double murder of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies at Baird’s Sydney home in February 2024

When confronted about the accusations by Sunrise host Natalie Barr, Ms Webb referenced a Taylor Swift lyric as she replied: ‘There will always be haters. Haters like to hate. Isn’t that what Taylor says?’ 

Host Matt Shirvington told the commissioner: ‘You have been criticised for your lack of public presence in regards to this matter. 

‘Only really heard from you three days after the fact. Why was that the case?’

‘I have been out and about at other things, I have a big organisation, and a $5billion budget running 22,000 people,’ Ms Webb shot back. 

‘The good thing about being the commissioner and the leader is having great people around you. I have got a great executive. I have a great team. And they all have a role to play. I let them do their job and they do it well.’

Ms Webb was also criticised for her response to the death of 95-year-old great-grandmother Clare Nowland after she was Tasered by former detective Kristian White at her retirement home in Cooma, in the state’s southeast. 

Ms Nowland, who suffered dementia and weighed 47kg, fell back and hit her head. She died ‘peacefully’ in hospital a week later. 

Ms Webb provoked fury after she told a press conference it was ‘not necessary’ to view body cam footage of the incident. 

‘I don’t really intend to, no,’ she said. ‘I have heard what is in the body worn, and I don’t see it necessary that I actually view it.’

More to come. 

***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk