Police slammed

By Tony Rhead
Updated November 9 2012 - 11:43am, first published December 11 2002 - 11:10pm

THE actions of police investigating what became a murder suicide in Oberon in October 2000 have been the subject of a scathing attack by the Deputy State Coroner., In handing down her finding on the deaths at Hawkes Drive, Oberon, of Linda Nicole Andrews, 27, and Bruce Robert Speight, 38, on October 23, 2000, Coroner Jacqueline Milledge said the response times of officers at Oberon on the morning of the shooting were inadequate., The response of ranking police in Dubbo to inquiries from a probationary constable two days earlier about a break-in and possible domestic dispute involving Mr Speight was "shocking”, Ms Milledge said., The families of Ms Andrews and Mr Speight heard Ms Milledge recount the desperate last pleas for help from Ms Andrews, recorded on a 000 call., A former girlfriend involved in a "toxic relationship of violence” with Mr Speight, Penelope Anne Furner, had just left the house with a female friend when Ms Andrews saw her estranged boyfriend walking up the driveway about 8.30am., She had seen his car parked some distance away and called Oberon police about 8.25am to alert them before her friends left. , Ms Milledge said senior constables Richard Buckley and Peter Thompson knew from an earlier call from Jenolan Caves Trust manager, Steve Riley, that Speight was contemplating suicide. , They did not know then that he had broken into a Trust gun cabinet on the Sunday night and stolen two rifles., Full story in the Western Advocate.

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