Husband and wife Hunter police detective duo's life of fighting crime

To both be recognised at the same time at the back end of their careers was "pretty special", Detective Sergeant Faber said.

Detective Sergeant Matthew David Faber joined the NSW Police Force on January 25, 1991.

He was designated a detective in 1999, and transferred to the Newcastle Detectives Unit in 2000 where he was promoted to detective sergeant four years later, in 2004.

During his career he led many notable strike forces involving serious and violent crimes including the execution style murder of Stacey Klimovitch who was shot in the chest with a shotgun when she answered her front door in Queen Street, Stockton, in June 2021.

In 2011, Detective Sergeant Faber led SF Kerwin, a five-month investigation targeting multiple groups, resulting in the charging of 23 offenders for armed robberies, attempted murder, firearm offences, drug offences and other strictly indictable offences.

In 2013 he led the 14-month investigation into the SummitCare Wallsend nursing home murders, in which three residents were injected with lethal doses of insulin, two of whom died.

The offender was convicted at trial and sentenced to 40 years in jail.

Detective Sergeant Kristi Lee Faber began her career in 1992, and was designated detective in 1999 when she transferred from Sydney to Maitland Detectives.

A year later she transferred to the Lake Macquarie detectives office where she has worked for the past 24 years, promoted to detective sergeant in 2006 and periodically relieving as crime manager since 2015.

Detective Sergeant Faber is perhaps best known for leading Strike Force Georgiana which investigated historic child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

It ran for 12 years, becoming one of the longest running investigations in the NSW Police Force's history, resulting in 19 offenders being charged with more than 600 offences relating to 182 victims, making headlines nationally and internationally and later facilitating legislative change.

Detective Sergeant Faber was also instrumental in the investigation of crimes committed by former member of parliament, Milton Orkopoulos, his conviction and custodial sentence.

The strike force, which was passionately led by Detective Sergeant Faber, laid over 600 charges against 19 offenders and obtained over 800 witness statements.

Detective Sergeant Faber was also the lead investigator on Strike Force Arapaima, which established in 2019 to re-investigate the disappearances of Amanda Robinson and Robyn Hickie and suspected kidnapping of Gordana Kotesvki.

Detective Sergeant Faber said she was very honoured to receive the Australian Police Medal, especially to be recognised alongside her husband.

"We are frontline and have been frontline for a long time," she said.

"So it was just nice that we both had similar careers running major jobs and doing frontline policing, and were both recognised at the same time - now, at the back end of our careers, this is quite nice. It's pretty special."