By Jordan Baker
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb has dismissed her media head Liz Deegan after widespread criticism of Webb’s public handling of an alleged double murder by a serving officer with his service pistol.
Deegan, a former Sunday Mail editor, Sunday Telegraph deputy editor and News Corp corporate affairs head who was hired by Webb as executive director of public affairs last April, was told on Wednesday that her services would no longer be required.
Elizabeth Deegan was a News Corp executive before joining NSW Police.
A police spokesman confirmed Deegan’s departure to the Herald. Deegan declined to comment.
The move comes after Webb was widely criticised for failing to address the public early enough after Senior Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly shot and killed couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in a Paddington home in mid-February, using his police-force pistol.
Webb also came under fire for the same issue when Senior Constable Kristian White allegedly Tasered elderly woman Clare Nowland last year, causing her to fall.
Nowland later died from her injuries. White has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and is due to be arraigned in the Supreme Court next month.
Deegan was the latest of three people to advise the commissioner during Webb’s leadership.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Soon after becoming commissioner, Webb parted ways with the incumbent public affairs executive director Grant Williams, who was close to her predecessor, Mick Fuller.
Former television producer Alex Hodgkinson served as the commissioner’s media advisor in 2022, and sworn officers held the executive director role. She left at the end of that year, and Deegan became the executive director of public affairs. Her job involved advising the commissioner and managing the police media unit.
That role pays between $320,000 and $360,000 a year. It’s a key job for the commissioner and for the police force, as the media unit manages everything from media queries at crime scenes to public messaging when there has been a worrying crime spree or problems with police officers.
One person who has held a senior position in the police media unit, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they work for the government and did not have permission to talk publicly, said finding the right person for the job had long been difficult because it required in-depth knowledge of politics, journalism and policing.
Webb’s media advice was questioned by NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley after the commissioner was widely criticised for failing to address the public early enough after Lamarre-Condon was charged with murder.
Amid the criticism, the commissioner – for whom media is not a strong suit – embarked on back-to-back interviews across many media outlets over days, making high-profile faux pas, including quoting Taylor Swift that “haters like to hate”. That strategy was also criticised internally. (Deegan had nothing to do with that comment, which was regarded by some as flippant, multiple sources told the Herald.)
When asked by the Herald in a previous interview whether Webb needed better media advice, Catley hesitated for a moment and then said, “Yes.”
Last year, Deegan came under fire over the media unit’s response to the alleged Tasering by an officer of 95-year-old great-grandmother Nowland, after a freedom of information request by the Herald showed she had deleted crucial details from a public statement about the incident.
The original emails sent for approval on the day of the alleged incident contained detailed information, including that Nowland held a knife when officers arrived at the nursing home, and that an officer allegedly Tasered her when she moved towards them.
The release was sent to Deegan. Hours later, more than half the statement had been cut, including mention of the Tasering, the fact that Nowland had a knife, where it occurred and that an officer’s employment was under review.
The details did not come to light until The Daily Telegraph published a story the following day.
In a statement, NSW Police confirmed the executive director of public affairs “has served her last day at NSW Police. We’d like to take this opportunity to wish her all the best in her future endeavours and thank her for her contribution to the NSWPF.”
When asked about the decision on Wednesday morning, NSW Premier Chris Minns said the commissioner’s job was difficult and, on Webb’s performance indicators such as crime prevention, “I think she does an excellent job.
“As it related to personnel management, I would leave that up to the public service and those that run those individual departments.”
clarification
This story has been altered to clarify that Deegan was the editor of The Sunday Mail and deputy editor, not editor, of The Sunday Telegraph.