Latest news with #AdrianTorrens
Daily Mail
12 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Shock details emerge about Audrey Griffin's killer and his 'sleepless' final days before he was found dead in a jail cell
The man charged with murdering Audrey Griffin before taking his own life had been on a drug binge and had not slept in five days when he was arrested. Adrian Torrens, 53, was accused of murdering Ironwoman athlete Ms Griffin on March 24 and leaving her body half-submerged in Erina Creek, on the NSW Central Coast. The 19-year-old had left the Hotel Gosford at about 2am and was walking along The Entrance Road, towards her father's house, for about an hour when she came into contact with her killer. Police alleged Ms Griffin was killed during a 'physical altercation' with Torrens, who'd been headed to the home of his estranged wife Michelle Torrens after she'd taken an apprehended violence order against him. Investigators initially ruled Ms Griffin's death a case of misadventure but received a tip which led officers to arrest Torrens in the inner-city Sydney suburb of Surry Hills on April 21, one month after the teenager was killed. Police claimed Torrens' phone had pinged near her body and his DNA was found under one of her fingernails. Torrens was taken to Sydney's maximum correctional facility at Silverwater Prison and locked in a glass-fronted single cell. Torrens hadn't slept for five days following an intense drug binge around Sydney, the Sunday Telegraph reported. Prison workers were on high alert and kept Torrens under the 24-hour surveillance of a special risk intervention team. Additionally, he was ordered to wear prison greens, which cannot be torn, in order to minimise the risk of self-harm as he withdrew from drugs. 'He was 53 years, which is considered elderly for an Aboriginal inmate coming off drugs,' one prison guard said. 'Any human that does not sleep for five days is on drugs.' Following several sessions with counsellors, Torrens was moved into a shared cell. It was there he asked a fellow inmate if he could borrow a razor. He claimed he wanted to be clean-shaven for his court appearance the next day. However, the courtrooms were closed the following day for Anzac Day public holiday. Torrens used the twin-blade razor to take his life and, despite the best efforts of officers and later paramedics, was pronounced dead at 4.50pm on April 24. Torrens (left) used a razor blade to take his own life following a five-day drug bender in Sydney and three days behind bars His body was not moved until a relative could formally identify him, in line with Indigenous cultural practices. The Coroner is now using CCTV footage to piece together the final moments of Torrens' life and check for any breaches of care as part of a public inquest. At the same moment Torrens died, Ms Griffin's loved ones were holding a vigil for her at Terrigal Beach. Her mother, Kathleen Kirby, received the phone call informing her of her daughter's killer's death as the event ended. Torrens' suicide meant Ms Kirby and Ms Griffin's father, Trevor, would never be able to seek courtroom justice for their daughter's death. 'She was my best friend, a better version of myself,' Ms Kirby said. 'Anger is not the answer, this is now my time to grieve.' Ms Griffin's body was discovered face-down in blue-green algae-infested water at 3.34pm on March 24. Her father arrived at the scene at the same time as officers. 'Imagine what that was like, having to identify your own daughter?' he said. The crime scene was just 11km from the home of Michelle Torrens, which she previously shared with the killer. In an exclusive interview with Daily Mail Australia, she revealed she'd received several threatening messages from Torrens on the night of Ms Griffin's murder. 'He rang me 12 times and because he was blocked, I was receiving them as text messages,' she said. 'He started calling from 7pm and the last phone call was at 12.10am on the night he killed her. 'He kept threatening to kill my son and I. My children are completely traumatised.' A distraught Michelle said both she and Audrey had been let down by the legal system. 'My heart goes out to Audrey's family,' she said. 'I do feel let down by the police and the judge, on the first night of the AVO, the very first AVO, the police took four hours to come here to do a welfare check. 'When he breached his AVO [that was taken out] to protect me, they took five months to find him. 'I lived in fear he would carry out one of his threats.' Torrens was hit with the latest AVO just two months before Ms Griffin's murder. He was prohibited from stalking, assaulting or threatening his estranged wife, recklessly destroying her property, or harming her two dogs. That AVO was due to expire on July 15, 2026. He'd avoided jail a few months earlier, in October 2024, after using a carriage service to harass, menace or offend his wife, which broke the rules of an earlier AVO. He pleaded guilty to the charge but was only handed an 18-month community corrections order. At that time, Torrens had a history of breaching an AVO from a previous partner. He had stomped on the woman's chest, broken her arm and threatened to kill her with a knife. Torrens had also been jailed in 2014 and 2018 for theft, fraud, assault, intimidation and twice breaching an AVO. His ex-wife told the Telegraph she still lives in fear of retaliation from Torrens' associates. 'He was coming for me that night,' she said. 'He called me at midnight, and 12 times that day. He threatened me and the children. 'He took Audrey instead, my heart goes out to her family.'
7NEWS
27-04-2025
- Politics
- 7NEWS
Edwina Bartholomew: The tragic murder of Audrey Griffin highlights Australia's crisis of violence against women
There is a clip going viral that every Australian should watch. It's not a funny cat or dog video or another kid with a trick on a skateboard. It's an impassioned plea for our politicians to take gender-based violence seriously. The clip is not new. It was recorded last year on the ABC show Q&A. The reason it's going viral now is because another Australian woman has lost their life in a senseless act of violence. Audrey Griffin was 19 years old. Her family said she brought 'endless laughter and joy to everyone' and was 'the kindest soul to walk this earth'. Audrey was last seen on the Entrance Rd in Erina on the NSW Central Coast at 3am on Sunday, March 23. Unable to get an Uber, she chose to walk home. Her body was found hours later, face down in Erina Creek, just metres away from one of the Central Coast's busiest roads. This week, Adrian Torrens was charged with her murder. Police say his DNA was found under Audrey's fingernails. Sadly, the details of the police case against Torrens barely matter now. Two days after he was arrested, he took his own life in his cell in Silverwater Prison. The 53-year-old will never face justice, and Audrey's family has been left with many more questions than answers. At the same time that pictures of Audrey's memorial at Terrigal Beach started flooding my social media feed this week, the viral video of Vincent Hurley on Q&A began appearing. Filmed in May 2024, it shows Federal frontbenchers Murray Watt and Bridget McKenzie and NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman sitting stony-faced as Hurley delivers an impassioned plea on behalf of the women of Australia. 'How dare you go into politics, in an environment like this, when one woman is murdered every four days, and all you ... can do is immediately talk about politics? That is just disgraceful,' he said, visibly angry. 'For God's sake, how long do we have to listen to politicians like you … high-horsing about? You're putting politics above these people behind me.' Hurley was in the audience as an expert in the field. A lecturer in criminology at Macquarie University, he also spent three decades as a NSW Police officer and detective in Western Sydney, attending up to 20 domestic violence cases a day. He argued the judicial system was behind the times. 'Social attitudes have changed and the law and the judiciary … don't reflect society,' he said. 'If a male has a history of crimes of violence, of any form of domestic violence, coercion, physical, emotional, they should not have the presumption of bail,' he said. Yet, here we are again. Adrian Torrens was placed on a community corrections order in January after pleading guilty to one count each of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend and contravening a domestic apprehended violence order in October last year. He was sentenced in 2020 to a prison term after breaching another court-imposed correctional order. When he was arrested for Audrey Griffen's murder, he was also charged with 11 other unrelated domestic violence charges. Torrens was a violent man who was allowed to walk free. If he had been denied that community corrections order and kept behind bars, Audrey would still be alive. Instead, she is the 22nd woman to die from gender based violence in Australia this year. Brisbane-based group, Dangerous Females, keeps track of their names and fights to keep the issue in the headlines. 'Men's violence against women shouldn't be a political afterthought,' founder Jessica Hallagan told me. 'Grassroots, underfunded charities are left doing the heavy lifting, fundraising, harm prevention, education, all of it'. As they pointed out this week in a blunt Instagram post: 'The only thing changing is the death toll.' The issue has been barely rated a mention during this entire election campaign. This week, Peter Dutton announced $90 million towards a 10-year national plan to end violence against women and children. It follows Anthony Albanese and the National Cabinet's $4.7 billion investment to tackle the problem, announced last year. That's it. The impact was over in a day, and we quickly returned to our housing crisis and electricity prices. On Sunday, thousands are expected to attend a rally to protest Audrey's death and stand up for the other women killed by violence this year. The Gosford rally has been co-organised by What Were You Wearing Australia, who continually stand up when women are brought down. There will be placards, tears, no doubt, and fiery speeches. I'm willing to bet a few token politicians will turn up, too. But who is actually listening? How many more rallies will there be? How many women will be killed? How many more must flee from harm before something serious is done?
