‘Inadequate’: NSW police criticised for not getting out of cars after triple zero call reported woman being bashed

Lindy Lucena was attacked and killed by her partner Robert Huber in 2023. Photograph: AAP image View image in fullscreen Lindy Lucena was attacked and killed by her partner Robert Huber in 2023. Photograph: AAP image ‘Inadequate’: NSW police criticised for not getting out of cars after triple zero call reported woman being bashed Independent watchdog clears officers of serious misconduct but finds they ‘did not meet minimum standards’ on night Lindy Lucena was killed in Ballina Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast At 7pm on 3 January 2023, New South Wales police received a triple zero call reporting that a woman was “being bashed” behind the Salvation Army building in Ballina. “I’m just letting you know, there’s a woman getting bashed behind Salvation Army in Ballina and that’s all I got to say I don’t want to be reported or anything,” the caller said. Almost six hours later, the woman’s partner of five years, who would later be convicted over her death, walked into the Ballina police station. He said he thought his partner, Lindy Lucena, was dead. He then led the police to a covered area at the side of the Salvation Army building, where they found her body. Birthkeeper hired by woman who died after freebirth tells inquest she was ‘not there to make a birth safer’ Read more What happened in the hours between that first call being made and Robert Huber leading police to 64-year-old Lucena’s body was investigated by the independent police watchdog, after concerns were raised by her family and Greens MP Sue Higginson. On Tuesday, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (Lecc) handed down its final report. It made no findings of misconduct but found there was an inadequate police response after two officers attended the scene, but did not get out of their respective cars, while Lucena was lying nearby, either dying or dead. The Lecc report found systemic issues may have contributed to the delayed response. Delayed response Three minutes after the emergency call was made, it was logged in the police dispatch system as a priority 2 job. Police procedures require all “reasonable efforts” to be made to broadcast a priority 2 job within 90 seconds, the report stated. But the first broadcast was made seven minutes after the call was logged, at 7.10pm, due to a mistake by a dispatch assistant. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email The job was broadcast a second time at 7.24pm and a third time at 7.34pm, despite it being required that a reasonable effort be made to re-broadcast an unanswered priority 2 job every 60 seconds. The commission found that how police prioritised jobs on the evening was “appropriate”, noting the two officers who responded were caught up responding to a minor road accident. The report said the officers “were also influenced by the fact that only one person had called police to report the assault, which led them to presume the assault was not serious