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National Film and Sound Archive of AustraliaNational Film and Sound Archive
National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
National Film and Sound Archive
National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
National Film and Sound Archive

Colin Winchester murder

1989

Colin Winchester murder

1989

  • NFSA ID0EM6MJYT
  • TypeTelevision
  • MediumMoving Image
  • FormSeries
  • GenresMulticultural, Sport, News
  • Year1989

Colin Winchester was an Assistant Commissioner in the Australian Federal Police (AFP). He is also Australia’s most senior police officer to have been murdered. On 10 January 1989, at about 9:15 pm, he was shot twice in the head and killed while parking his police vehicle in the driveway of his home. After a four-year surveillance investigation, David Harold Eastman was convicted of Winchester’s murder on 11 November 1995. This short news item makes the stunning announcement of the lifting of the suppression order of the name and particulars of the man suspected of killing Winchester. By the time of this broadcast the trial was in its fourth week. We hear a surprising amount of detailed information about the case in a very short period of time. Included is slow-motion footage of the accused, David Eastman, walking outside his Canberra townhouse; he is casually dressed, wearing thongs and tossing a set of keys. While the footage has probably been slowed down because of its brevity, it has the effect of looking like surveillance film and subtly suggests the accused is confident he has 'gotten away with murder’. In fact, in 2014 Justice Brian Ross Martin found there had been 'a substantial miscarriage of justice’ and that Eastman 'did not receive a fair trial’. On 22 August 2014 the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory quashed Eastman’s conviction and ordered a retrial.

Courtesy of
National Nine News, Brisbane

Colin Winchester was an Assistant Commissioner in the Australian Federal Police (AFP). He is also Australia’s most senior police officer to have been murdered. On 10 January 1989, at about 9:15 pm, he was shot twice in the head and killed while parking his police vehicle in the driveway of his home. After a four-year surveillance investigation, David Harold Eastman was convicted of Winchester’s murder on 11 November 1995. This short news item makes the stunning announcement of the lifting of the suppression order of the name and particulars of the man suspected of killing Winchester. By the time of this broadcast the trial was in its fourth week. We hear a surprising amount of detailed information about the case in a very short period of time. Included is slow-motion footage of the accused, David Eastman, walking outside his Canberra townhouse; he is casually dressed, wearing thongs and tossing a set of keys. While the footage has probably been slowed down because of its brevity, it has the effect of looking like surveillance film and subtly suggests the accused is confident he has 'gotten away with murder’. In fact, in 2014 Justice Brian Ross Martin found there had been 'a substantial miscarriage of justice’ and that Eastman 'did not receive a fair trial’. On 22 August 2014 the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory quashed Eastman’s conviction and ordered a retrial.

Courtesy of
National Nine News, Brisbane
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