David Eastman, who served 20 years in gaol for the murder of one of Australia’s top policeman, has been found not guilty upon re-trial.
A jury made the decision, clearing Mr Eastman’s name, now 73, who was formerly convicted of killing Colin Winchester of the AFP nearly 3 decades ago.
According to ABC, today’s verdict was delivered to a packed ACT supreme court, with an audible gasp heard upon the result of a week of deliberation.
The tension in the room in the moments leading up to the verdict was described as “palpable.”
Mr Eastman was alleged to have shot Mr Winchester as he was getting out of his car in 1989- however, a 2014 inquiry showed that there had likely been a miscarriage of justice, resulting in Mr Eastman being released and a retrial being launched.
Mr Eastman arrives at court
The re-trial cost taxpayers $6.5 million, a decision that ACT Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay defended, noting that “It’s not for the government to be commenting in any way on any individual court case.”
“The funding that is allocated is an amount that covers the court costs, the prosecution costs, the policing costs, and the defence costs.”
The legal proceedings in the trail over the last decade are estimated to have cost $30 million, with Mr Eastman’s prosecution based on circumstantial evidence, recorded tapes and past threats made against the police.
Colin Winchester was the assistant commissioner of the ACT Federal Police when he was murdered
The tapes, most of which were home recordings of Mr Eastman talking to himself, were claimed to have contained an admission of guilt but were argued by the defence to be in too poor of a condition to of been of use.
The defence argued that the killing had been a Mafia hit, organised in response to a drug ring being investigated by Mr Winchester’s team.
Check out this 2012 7:30 Report special on the case
The trial consisted of 36,000 pages of evidence, more than 100 witnesses and dozens of statements, with Mr Eastman sitting behind his lawyers for a majority of proceedings.
“We believe the verdict is wrong and we are extremely disappointed, given the significant volume of compelling evidence,” said a statement released on behalf of the Winchester family.
Mr Eastman’s former public defender, Mr Terry O’Donnell, remarked that he was “relieved” by proceedings, and had been watching the entire legal battle unfold with “horror.”
Angus Webb, Mr Eastman’s lawyer, said simply that “justice has been done.”
When asked if he believed that the case into the killing of Mr Winchester should be re-opened, Mr O’Donnell said that “the witnesses I know are alive are subject to suppression and protection orders, and a lot of the people are dead, the investigating police from Armadale are dead, Mrs Winchester is dead.”
Read the timeline of events in the trail courtesy of the ABC here, before a true crime podcast beats you to it.
