A man has been charged with the alleged murder of his partner in her northern New South Wales home, while police launch an investigation into handling of the “horrific” incident.
Dwayne John Creighton, 31, was refused bail after a woman, believed to be in her 40s, was found beaten and unconscious in her Casino home in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Appearing in Lismore court on Monday, Creighton was charged with one count of murder.
Police have also made an application to “carry out a forensic procedure” which will be heard next week.
The incident has sparked an independent investigation after it took officers an hour to respond to a call made at about 1.30am on Saturday when neighbours reportedly heard screams from inside the home.
Police did not acknowledge the call until about 2.25am and arrived at the home two minutes later.
The police minister, Yasmin Catley, said it was a “horrific” incident and that concerns around the response time warranted a thorough investigation, a coronial inquiry and monitoring by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC).
“We do not want this to happen again,” she told Seven’s Sunrise program on Monday.
“We want to make sure that the independent review is undertaken extensively so that we can ensure and assure the community that when they call the police, they will come.”
Police started CPR upon finding the woman but she could not be revived and died at the scene.
“Clearly something has gone wrong here and we need to make sure this investigation is thorough and we get to the bottom of it and if there’s a glitch in the system, we’ll fix it,” she said.
The triple zero call was reportedly logged as a non-urgent category three priority.
The NSW police assistant commissioner Peter McKenna said on Saturday the independent review would scrutinise whether the call had been logged in the “correct category of urgency”.
“The delay in the timing of police acknowledging that call and attending the scene has given me enough concern that I’ve asked for an independent review of this investigation as to what that delay was and if it was justified or otherwise,” he said.
The reasons for the lag between the call and officers arriving at the home would form the core of the investigation, he said.
“That’s why I’ve asked for it to be independently reviewed because we want to see what happened from the time that call was made, how the radio operator dispatched that call, the circumstances around that, the timings to when it was acknowledged and until police attended.”
The investigation is being led by police from the nearby Tweed Byron district and will be reviewed by the professional standards command. The LECC confirmed it was independently monitoring the investigation of the critical incident.
Creighton remains in custody and is due to appear at Lismore court on 28 August.
