Nat Barr erupts over 60-minute police delay

Sunrise host Natalie Barr has slammed NSW’s Police Minister in a fiery on-air exchange after police took 60 minutes to respond to an alleged domestic violence murder, leaving a mother of-three “waiting for an hour on the floor”.

Sarah Miles was found unconscious with head injuries when police arrived at a home in Casino, in the NSW Northern Rivers, at 2.27am on Saturday.

Neighbours had reportedly heard screams and called triple-0 shortly after 1.30am, but police only acknowledged the call at 2.25am.

Officers arrived two minutes later and performed CPR, but Ms Miles’ condition deteriorated and she died at the scene.

Her partner Dwanye John Creighton has been charged with murder.

Blasting the delayed police response on Sunrise on Monday morning, Barr questioned NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley on the handling of the emergency call, which she said was logged as a priority three instead of a priority one.

“Minister, your team has assured us domestic violence is your top priority, how do you explain this?”

“It’s just horrific Nat and my heart goes out to family and to the community there in Casino,” said Minister Catley, who said an independent review had been established.

“We also know there will be a coronial into this incident and LEC is there as well, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, to ensure everything is looked at forensically.”

“We do not want this to happen again and we want to make sure the independent review is undertaken extensively so we can assure the community when they call the police they will come.”

Hitting back, Barr replied: “There are inquiries into all of them (deaths), every week, and they keep happening again.”

Minister Catley continued to state investigations were needed to prevent similar incidents and highlighted the importance of public trust in emergency services.

“We want people to know that if they call triple-0 and let me just put it in context, 750,000 calls a year, 12,000 calls a day, we want to make sure people have the confidence that when they call, police will come.”

“Yep, but they don’t,” said Barr.

“This was logged as a priority three, instead of a priority one, how on Earth can that happen when we know that a woman is dying at least once a week?”

“Well clearly something has gone wrong here and we need to make sure that 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,” replied Minister Catley.

Firing back, Barr responded: “yeah, a glitch all right, that’s an understatement”.

“When police arrived, this woman was unconscious but still breathing, it sounds like they could have saved her if they had just gotten there in time,” she continued.

Minister Catley said an investigation will provide further information.

“What I do know is when police got there, in accordance with their training, they started CPR immediately, which is what police do and we saw Amy Scott do the same of course in Bondi when that incident occurred out there.”

“There’s that whole hour in between where something went horribly wrong and a woman’s life was lost,” Barr concluded.

Son speaks out

It comes after Ms Miles’ son questioned the delayed response time, which saw his mother having to wait “an hour on the floor” for help.

“Words cannot describe the pain that I am feeling at the moment,” Shayden Miles told 9News.

“It’s not just a loss, it’s also dealing with the fact that she was waiting for an hour on the floor and that is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

Mr Miles described his mother as a “very strong person” and a “fighter” to the end.

“I’m so proud of her and I’m proud, I’m proud to have her as my mother and I’m proud to have been her son.”

Police earlier revealed a “critical incident” investigation would be launched into the delayed response on Saturday.

“That has given me enough concern to ask for an independent review … what was that delay and whether it was justified or otherwise,” NSW Police Northern Region Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna said on Saturday afternoon.

“What (police) were doing prior to that and what other jobs there were will form part of that investigation.”

A critical incident review tasks external investigators with assessing how officers responded to an incident, and whether there were any failures in the response.

A team from the Byron Police District will examine the response and the Professional Standards Command will oversee the investigation.
It is the second alleged domestic violence murder in NSW in just two days after a woman was allegedly murdered by her housemate in Sydney’s inner-west.

Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna said the police did not tolerate domestic violence “in any way, shape, or form”.

“We take domestic violence extremely seriously.”