The NSW Police Commissioner has doubled down on her comment that she is ‘grateful’ to accused double murderer Beau Lamarre-Condon for assisting police.
Police chief Karen Webb came under fire last night by Mitch Swanson, a close friend of Jesse Baird, after she announced police had found Baird and Luke Davies’ remains in surfboard bags on a property at remote Bungonia, in the NSW Southern Tablelands.
In an interview with the Today Show on Wednesday morning, Commissioner Webb doubled down on her comment, telling host Sarah Abo that it was the alleged victims’ families who were grateful their remains had been found.
It comes as Commissioner Webb brushed off criticism of her leadership with a Taylor Swift quote, saying ‘haters like to hate’, and sparked uproar by describing the incident as an alleged ‘crime of passion’.
Police Commissioner Karen Webb appeared to double down on her controversial comment about being ‘very grateful’ to accused double murderer Beau Lamarre-Condon
Sarah Abo asked Webb about the controversy over her handling of the alleged double murder in a week full of apparent blunders by the top cop
Abo put to Commissioner Webb: ‘Now you, personally, Commissioner have come under fire for some of the language that you’ve been using – that press conference yesterday did feel a bit .. all over the shop in a way.
‘As you’ve addressed before, the (alleged) ‘crime of passion’ (comment) is something that you regret. Yesterday you said you were very grateful to the accused. It’s difficult, isn’t it – you do have to front the cameras?’
Karen Webb responded: ‘I think the comment about being grateful is grateful that the family now knows, and were able to know yesterday, where their loved ones were.
‘If that information didn’t come forward, we would still be searching. So we’re grateful that the information came forward in a way that detectives could act.
‘And we could tell the families and take the families to their loved ones.’
Asked if she was comfortable in her role when facing the media, Ms Webb replied: ‘Of course I am.’
The latest interview comes in a week in which Sunrise’s Natalie Barr lost it at Webb in a train wreck interview about the top cop’s ‘haters’ comment.
Jesse Baird’s friend Mitch Swanson (pictured, left, with Baird) slammed Commissioner Webb’s use of the word ‘grateful’
The bodies of Luke Davies (left) and Jesse Baird (right) were discovered on Tuesday
The Commissioner then bizarrely refused to leave the Sunrise studios for ten minutes because she feared being ambushed by TV cameras outside.
It also comes as insiders have claimed to Daily Mail that while Webb was ‘a very nice person’ she just ‘does not have it to be police commissioner’ – and a petition has been launched calling for her to resign.
Mitch Swanson, who was good friends with Baird, was incensed when he heard Ms Webb’s apparently thoughtless choice of words by describing it as ‘grateful’.
‘Saying how GRATEFUL they are to [Lamarre-Condon] for (allegedly) revealing information is just another blow to his family and friends,’ Swanson wrote to friends.
In several online comments (one pictured), Mr Swanson said Baird’s loved ones are not ‘grateful’ to his alleged murderer and described police’s ‘handling of this’ as an ‘absolute train wreck’
‘The police handling of this is an absolute trainwreck.’
Mr Swanson later shared another scathing review of Commissioner Webb’s wording on his Instagram story.
‘Heartbroken all over again. The boys have been found,’ he said.
‘We are not ‘grateful’ in any shape or form that the accused assisted police in finding the bodies of our dear friends.
‘What a f**ked up thing to say!’
Daily Mail has contacted Mr Swanson and the NSW Police Force for further comment.