"In 1995, a jury found Eastman guilty of the senior policeman's murder, and he was subsequently sentenced to life behind bars. The prisoner has always maintained his innocence, and fought the jury's verdict all the way to the High Court.
Now it has emerged a rifle, locked away in a Canberra solicitor's office, could explain flecks of gunshot residue in the boot of Eastman's car and undermine the conviction.
A spokeswoman for ACT Policing yesterday, when asked if investigators would seek to examine the gun, said police had noted The Canberra Times article. ''If a matter of new evidence is referred to ACT Policing, we would deal with that as per existing protocols,'' she said. ''But we don't, as a general rule, initiate investigations on the basis of media reporting.''
REPORTER LOUIS ANDREWS; THE CANBERRA TIMES;
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"But they said they are unwilling to launch an investigation solely on the basis of media reports about the killing, which has intrigued the Canberra community for more than two decades," the stroy continues.
"The statement comes in the wake of new information about the high-profile 1989 murder of assistance police commissioner Colin Winchester, revealed in Saturday's The Canberra Times.
In 1995, a jury found Eastman guilty of the senior policeman's murder, and he was subsequently sentenced to life behind bars. The prisoner has always maintained his innocence, and fought the jury's verdict all the way to the High Court.
Now it has emerged a rifle, locked away in a Canberra solicitor's office, could explain flecks of gunshot residue in the boot of Eastman's car and undermine the conviction.
A spokeswoman for ACT Policing yesterday, when asked if investigators would seek to examine the gun, said police had noted The Canberra Times article. ''If a matter of new evidence is referred to ACT Policing, we would deal with that as per existing protocols,'' she said. ''But we don't, as a general rule, initiate investigations on the basis of media reporting.''
The comments come as Eastman prepares for yet another court appearance, listed for Thursday morning in the ACT Supreme Court before the Federal Court's Justice Shane Marshall. The application was listed as far back as April, and the prisoner was unaware of the rifle's existence until very recently. Mr Winchester was shot twice in the head as he was getting out of his car in the driveway of his Deakin home in January 1989.
While the Crown case hinged on a strong chain of circumstantial evidence, the gunshot residue played a significant part in both Eastman's 1995 trial and a subsequent appeal, with the prosecution highlighting the man's inability to explain its presence. But a retired schoolteacher has signed an affidavit stating Eastman lent him his car in the late 1980s to go rabbit shooting, and he subsequently put the gun in the car boot."
The story can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
