David Eastman

David Harold Eastman is a former public servant from Canberra, Australia.

Eastman was a Treasury official until 1977 when he retired on health grounds.

He later applied for a post at the Australian Bureau of Statistics but was rejected with one reason being given that he had written letters to the press regarding economic and business matters which might be seen to prejudice the Bureau's reputation.

Although the Ombudsman was not allowed to investigate internal public service matters, he agreed to investigate a case brought by Eastman because he was a member of the public at the time.

Subsequently, the Ombudsman concluded there had not been discrimination against Eastman.

Eastman had sought, on several fronts and over a sustained period, to be reinstated to the public service.

In 1986, Eastman's mother requested a restraining order on Eastman after he threatened her life while trying to break down her front door.

Eastman's father, Allan Eastman who died in 1987, worked at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and had several overseas postings in ambassadorial roles.

As a child, Eastman frequently moved house due to his father's overseas postings.

Eastman has one younger sister and two older twin sisters.

Eastman was very successful at Canberra Grammar School where he was dux, and he went to the University of Sydney at the age of 16.

When he was 21 he started seeing a psychiatrist because he was "feeling lonely and miserable and not getting on with people".

According to media reports from Eastman's criminal trial, Eastman became involved in a dispute with a neighbour on 17 December 1987; and Eastman was charged with assault.

He led a determined campaign to convince police that he had been wrongly charged and that it was his neighbour who had been the instigator.

On 21 December 1988 approval to his reinstatement was granted.

On 16 December 1988 Eastman met with Colin Winchester, the Chief Police Officer of ACT Policing, in an attempt to review the assault charge.

The meeting was brokered by Neil Brown, the shadow attorney-general, who also met with Peter McAulay, the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police.

On 21 December 1988 Winchester advised Eastman that he would need to face the assault charges in court; and an appearance date was set for 12 January 1989.

Eastman was advised by letter that the AFP would not interfere with the conviction.

The letter arrived at Eastman's flat on the morning of 10 January 1989.

It was alleged that Eastman had made threats against Winchester's life in the period preceding Winchester's murder.

On 10 January 1989, at about 9:15 pm, Colin Winchester was shot twice in the head with a Ruger 10/22 .22-calibre semi-automatic rifle fitted with a silencer.

Winchester was murdered as he parked his police vehicle near his house in Deakin, Canberra.

Winchester parked in his neighbour's driveway; his neighbour was an elderly woman who felt safer with a car parked in her driveway.

Winchester is Australia's most senior police officer to have been murdered.

The day following Winchester's murder, police interviewed Eastman as a murder suspect.

After two years of investigations that included an inquest by the ACT Chief Coroner, Eastman was summonsed to appear before the Coroner, but failed to do so.

A warrant for Eastman's arrest was issued on 23 December 1992 and on the same day he was arrested and charged with the murder of Winchester.

Eastman was subsequently committed to a trial.

In 1995, he was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Colin Winchester and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

During the 85-day trial that commenced in 1995, Eastman repeatedly sacked his legal team and eventually chose to represent himself.

Eastman also abused the judge during his trial, and during later legal proceedings and appeals.

A report written for Eastman's murder trial stated that he previously had "six charges of threatening to kill, 128 charges of making harassing or menacing phone calls, 11 charges of assault and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm".

Also "He has been charged with assaulting police on three occasions."

A 2014 judicial inquiry recommended the sentence be quashed and he should be pardoned.

On 22 August of the same year, the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory quashed the conviction, released Eastman from prison, and ordered a retrial.

Eastman sought leave to the High Court to appeal against the decision for a retrial.

His appeal was unsuccessful, and a retrial commenced on 18 June 2018.

On 22 November 2018, the jury in the retrial found Eastman not guilty of murder.

Eastman, who had served 19 years in custody, was awarded A$7 million in compensation in October 2019.