The top cop in NSW has defended detectives after Audrey Griffin’s mother revealed she pleaded with them to make her daughter’s murder a priority in the days after her body was found in a NSW creek.

The 19-year-old was found dead at Erina Creek on the Central Coast on March 22 following a night out celebrating with friends at Gosford Hotel. An initial autopsy indicated the talented athlete had drowned.

The report found no evidence of trauma or sexual assault, so detectives deemed the death misadventure. But Audrey’s parents Kathleen Kirby and Trevor Griffith pushed for further investigations.

Ms Kirby begged to be shown CCTV from the area, and it was only when they were then going through the footage did they notice a man who appeared to be following Audrey as she walked home from the hotel. 

A CCTV image was then released more than three weeks after Audrey’s body had been found, prompting a woman to contact police and tell them the man looked like her ex-husband who had threatened her on the night Audrey died.

Adrian Noel Torrens, 53, was then arrested and charged with murder following police catching him confessing to the murder while under surveillance. Days later he took his own life in Silverwater jail.

Commissioner Karen Webb said on 60 Minutes on Sunday night that initial confusion over the cause of the 19-year-old’s death was because there was so little evidence.

She acknowledged police had mistakenly ruled Ms Griffin’s death as ‘misadventure’ before her mother pleaded with officers to review security footage. ‘That was based on the medical advice,’ Ms Webb said.

Commisioner Webb claimed that all that police had to go on was the report from the postmortem.

‘[It] didn’t suggest any foul play. There’s no evidence that she was strangled, there’s no evidence that she was sexually assaulted and there’s no evidence of trauma.

‘So they really didn’t have a lot to go on other than a postmortem that said misadventure.’

She claimed officers had a ‘cop instinct’ and doggedly kept pursuing the case despite no details getting released to the media and Ms Kirby having to go into the station and push for the CCTV to be reviewed.

The state’s Homicide Squad detectives also remained sidelined from the case for a number of weeks, despite consultation from local detectives.

Asked whether the case could have been better handled, Ms Webb said: ‘Could this be better, more perfect? Yes.

‘But, did we catch a killer? Yes.’

Officers only identified Torrens after circulating a CCTV image of him via the media.

Ms Webb conceded officers had trawled the CCTV vision from Gosford on the night of March 22 only after Audrey’s mother pleaded with local police to have a look at it herself.

Ms Kirby also said a friend of hers had spotted a suspicious man poking around the spot where Audrey was found at Erina Creek five days after she died, well before police reviewed the CCTV.

‘A girlfriend of mine was driving to work at 5 o’clock in the morning, heading towards Sydney at the entrance road and sees a man at 5 a.m. in the morning with a red singlet and white shorts and a white stick poking around,’ she said.

The description was a match for what Torrens had been wearing on the night of Audrey’s death.

She added that she also noticed mud underneath Audrey’s fingernails when identifying her, which further fueled her belief it was not misadventure.

‘Well, they were going back through the CCTV [because] the mum obviously wanted us to do as much as we can,’ Ms Webb said.

She said Torrens’ ex-partner’s call identifying him as the man in the video was ‘gold’ for detectives.

Ex-partner Michelle told the program she would have called police sooner about the threats mae against her if she had more faith in their ability to respond.

It previously took police months to find him after he breached an AVO for him only to then be let out by the courts on a Community Corrections Order.

‘We wouldn’t be in this position, I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you, Audrey wouldn’t be dead if he had have been held in custody,’ Commissioner Webb said.

‘He should have been locked up. A Community Corrections Order for someone who has a violent history is no answer.’

She argued ‘soft’ sentences should be reviewed.

‘I can say as the police commissioner, I’m certainly frustrated because a get out of jail free card is no the answer for people like Torrens,’ Ms Webb said.

When police brought Torrens into custody, they called Kathleen and Trevor into the station.

‘That moment where police tell you that they’ve arrested a man over your daughter’s death, it was like she died again,’ Mr Griffith said.

‘So I said, “has he said that he’s done anything to Audrey, and they said we haven’t been able to speak to him yet because he’s sleeping. But we have enough evidence”,’ Ms Kirby said.

Both Mr Griffin and Ms Kirby said they had wanted more from the justice system.

They couldn’t believe Torrens – who has an extensive criminal history including theft, fraud, intimidation, drugs and AVO offences – had been in the community on a CCO.

‘It’s outrageous. It’s outrageous that he can walk the streets after doing so many offences over the years,’ Mr Kirby said.

‘Why was he out? Why was he allowed out?’ Ms Kirby asked.

‘The government are too weak. And the justice system. It’s as if they’re breeding monsters,’ Mr Griffin said.