NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb blames ‘Taylor Swift fever’ for inappropriate response to Sydney double murder

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb has blamed ‘Taylor Swift fever’ for her bizarre decision to reference a pop song while discussing her force’s response to an alleged double murder.

Commissioner Webb faced a brutal grilling from A Current Affair host Deborah Knight on Tuesday after several of her comments regarding the alleged murders of Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies sparked controversy.

In an earlier interview on Sunrise on Tuesday morning, Commissioner Webb used a clumsy Taylor Swift reference when asked about the backlash to her earlier description of the two men’s deaths as a ‘crime of passion’.

‘Haters like to hate… isn’t that what Taylor [Swift] says?’ she said, quoting the pop star’s song Shake It Off.

She addressed the awkward gaffe on Tuesday night during her interview with Knight, suggesting it was somehow appropriate given Swift was recently on tour in Australia.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb has blamed ‘Taylor Swift fever’ for her bizarre decision to reference a pop song while discussing her force’s response to an alleged double murder 

Luke Davies (left) and Jesse Baird (right) were allegedly shot and killed by NSW Police senior constable Beau Lamarre-Condon last Monday

Commissioner Webb repeatedly avoided Deborah Knight’s (pictured) questions about her ‘leadership’ by redirecting all focus to Baird and Davies

‘We’ve just have had Taylor Swift in the city, it was Taylor fever here [in Sydney],’ she told Knight.

‘Certainly, my efforts have been on the investigation, and they remain so, to support the police and the work they do. 

‘That’s where the priority is, it’s really about the families now.’

The Commissioner was also grilled over whether she realised she ‘should have spoken earlier’ after taking several days to address the alleged double murder.

She insisted she was ‘certainly doing the job’ and was unable to properly respond to the alleged crime until Sunday because she ‘travels the state extensively’.

When asked why she described the alleged murders as a ‘crime of passion’, Commissioner Webb referenced Swift (pictured) and said: ‘Haters like to hate’

‘I can’t be in two places at once,’ she told A Current Affair.

‘I’ve got a great team and I am here to do what is required.

Commissioner Webb also consistently avoided Ms Knight’s questions about her ‘leadership’ by diverting the attention back to Baird and Davies.

‘This is about Jesse and Luke,’ she answered Ms Knight’s question on why she ‘stayed silent over the weekend’.

‘I spoke to the families on Sunday and Monday. I called their families.

‘We have thrown all our resources at this to make sure we got to the conclusion we got to today [discovering the bodies] and I’m very pleased with all the work that’s been done.’

However, the Commissioner’s excuses may have come too late after she used the word ‘grateful’ to describe police and the victims’ families’ reactions to the suspect Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly revealing the location of the couple’s bodies.

Lamarre-Condon, a NSW Police senior constable, was charged with two counts of murder on Friday but waited until 11am on Tuesday to tell police where they could find the bodies of the two young men.

Although the tone of Tuesday afternoon’s press conference was sombre, Commissioner Webb’s phrasing of the alleged killer’s cooperation was poorly received.

‘We are very confident that we have located Luke and Jesse,’ she said.

‘I’d like to say, also, that this information did come with the assistance of the accused, for which we’re very grateful and I’m sure the families are very grateful.’

Although the context of her statement was that police and the victims’ families were ‘grateful’ to have the bodies found, the attribution to Lamarre-Condon left a sour taste.

Commissioner Webb was again criticised on Tuesday by Jesse Baird’s friend Mitch Swanson (pictured together) for saying police and the victims’ families were ‘grateful’ to the couple’s alleged killer for allegedly telling police where their bodies were hidden

Police allege Lamarre-Condon shot the couple in Sydney before making two trips to hide their bodies in two locations in Bungonia (pictured, a map showing significant places in the case)

It is alleged Lamarre-Condon shot Channel Ten presenter Baird and his Qantas flight attendant boyfriend Davies with his police-issued Glock pistol at Baird’s terrace home in Paddington, inner Sydney, last Monday.

Lamarre-Condon then handed himself into Bondi Police Station on Thursday, and he was charged with two counts of murder on Friday.

However, he allegedly refused to tell police Baird’s and Davies’ bodies were hidden in surf bags at a Bungonia property on Jerrara Road until a lawyer advised him to assist with the investigation on Tuesday.

Baird’s friend and Channel Ten co-worker Mitch Swanson was left outraged by Commissioner Webb’s use of the word ‘grateful’ and slammed her in a series of social media posts.

‘Saying how GRATEFUL they are to the murderer for revealing information is just another blow to his family and friends,’ he wrote in one.

‘He deserves no form of thanks at all. The police handling of this is an absolute train wreck.’

In another post, he said: ‘Heartbroken all over again. The boys have been found.’

‘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!’

It’s alleged Lamarre-Condon drove a rented van to Bungonia from Sydney last Wednesday, with an acquaintance, and bought an angle driver and padlock on the way.

He was alleged to have cut through a padlocked gate to access a private road and left his acquaintance for 30 minutes while he allegedly disposed of the bodies.

He then returned to Sydney, but police allege he bought weights at 11pm that night before driving to Bungonia again.

His second visit is when investigators allege he may have moved the bodies to a new location, where they were found near the fence-line of the Jerrara Road on Tuesday.

Homicide Squad Commander Danny Doherty did not reveal what state the bodies were discovered in but noted they were ‘covered in debris’.

‘We will allege [Lamarre-Condon] acted alone and he is the sole person responsible for putting the bodies of Luke and Jesse at the current location,’ he said.

Lamarre-Condon has been suspended without pay from NSW Police and will next appear in court in April.

POLICE TIMELINE OF EVENTS

Monday

9.50am: Gunshots heard in Paddington but not reported to police

9.54am: Triple-0 call made from Jesse Baird’s phone but it disconnected

Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon rents a white Toyota HiAce van

Tuesday

Lamarre-Condon makes partial admissions about his role in the deaths of Mr Baird and Mr Davies to a former police officer

Wednesday

11am: Bloodied belongings of Mr Davies and Mr Baird found in skip bin in Cronulla

Around midday, Constable Lamarre-Condon heads south of Sydney to the Southern Tablelands area with a female acquaintance

He stops at a store in Goulburn and buys an angle grinder and a padlock

He then buys weights and torches

He leaves the acquaintance at the gate of a rural property while he drives off for about 30 minutes

Thursday

4.30am: Constable Lamarre-Condon leaves the Bungonia area and heads to Newcastle where he uses a hose to clean the rented HiAce van

Friday

5am: He leaves Newcastle and drives to Grays Point, in the city’s south

10.39am: Constable Lamarre-Condon hands himself into police

2pm: He is charged with two counts of murder and refuses to cooperate with police

Monday

Police divers search several dams at a remote property in Bungonia, 180km south of Sydney, without finding any trace of the missing men

Tuesday

Two more crime scenes are sealed off at Grays Point, near Cronulla in Sydney’s south, close to Lamarre-Condon’s childhood home and at a location in the Royal National Park

11am: Lamarre-Condon agrees to speak to detectives and assist them in the hunt for the bodies

1pm: Two bodies stuffed into surf bags and partially hidden by rocks and detris are located 20 minutes’s drive away from the Bungonia dams that were searched on Monday.