Pete Hancock & I wrote Too Many cops in Canberra which mentioned the Winchester murder. It contained the lines:
‘Had a Commissioner here in Canberra
who shot him we’ll never know.
But it’s one cop less
it caused no distress.
it seems the way to go.
The coppers they blamed a pensioner,
the people they blamed the police.
But the bourgeoisie of the ACT
told us “that’s not very nice”.’
The pensioner referred to was David Eastman who had been pensioned out of the public service. In the story below you will find details of David’s acquittal. I believed then and still do that Winchester was shot by corrupt Canberra coppers:
Too many cops
There are too many cops here in Canberra,
coppers who lie and who cheat.
But the bourgeoisie of the ACT
wants more of them on the beat.
There are too many cops here in Canberra
coppers who bash and who maim.
But the bourgeoisie of the ACT
wants more of them all the same.
Had a Commissioner here in Canberra
who shot him we’ll never know.
But it’s one cop less
it caused no distress.
it seems the way to go.
The coppers they blamed a pensioner,
the people they blamed the police.
But the bourgeoisie of the ACT
told us “that’s not very nice”.
I went down to the Hotel
to hear Kevin Carmody sing.
The biggest mob of cops turned up
oh what a wondrous thing.
Kevin’s a Murrie from Queensland
his weapon it is a guitar
the welcome the cops gave him
ensured he wouldn’t go far.
Migrants and Aborigines
get the rough end of the stick.
The rich live well in Canberra
and coppers here are quick-
or thick
or sick.
Now the copper’s they pulled out their batons
and rushed up the stairs towards me.
I held out my hand said “You don’t understand
It’s a concert by Carmody”.
The coppers were there by the door
They’d come to hassle the poor
They came from Aidex
They wouldn’t take cheques
They were there to settle the score.
To the Magistrate’s court I was brought
the coppers refused to be bought.
For the bourgeoisie of the ACT
it was certainly food for thought.
The coppers they lied to man
as only a copper can
all their stories were straight
though some had come late.
They lied when they said I resisted
They lied when they said I kicked out
for the bourgeoisie of the ACT
I am another lout.
They’re cutting the service in health
to increase police budgets by stealth
corruption and fraud is by coppers ignored
and welfare we can’t afford.
There are too many cops here in Canberra
cops never go out on their own.
So if you’re poor, or you’re Black
from the wrong side of the track
then don’t walk the streets here alone.
So ignore your betters and then
please listen to me till the end
if you’re down on your uppers
you can’t trust the coppers
cause here they’re all rotters my friend.
(with Peter Hancock)
David Eastman cleared of Canberra police chief’s murder in dramatic retrial
by Christopher Knaus Thu 22 Nov 2018 11.48
David Eastman, a man who spent 19 years behind bars for the assassination of the Australian Capital Territory’s police chief, has been cleared of the crime in a dramatic retrial.
The verdict marks the end of another chapter in a case that has consumed Canberra since the night of 10 January 1989, when Colin Winchester was shot to death as he got out of his car outside his Deakin home.
Winchester, an Australian federal policeassistant commissioner, remains the highest-ranking police officer to have been murdered in Australia’s history. The AFP said at the time that his murder marked “the end of the age of innocence for Australia”.
The case has seen it all. From evidence suggesting a Calabrian mafia revenge plot, to bogus forensic evidence, wrongful imprisonment and allegations of police misconduct in their almost three-year investigation.
At the centre of it all was Eastman, an economist and public servant who was charged with Winchester’s murder in 1992.
Eastman quickly came under suspicion after Winchester’s killing. The former Treasury official was facing an assault charge over a dispute with his neighbour.
The economist, fearing that the charge would ruin his career, tried desperately to have police drop it, and made representations to Winchester which were rebuffed. This, it was alleged, was Eastman’s motive. Evidence allegedly suggested that Eastman had made threats on Winchester’s life, had scoped out his home, and bought a gun that police believed to be the murder weapon.
Eastman was tried and convicted in 1995, and spent 19 years behind bars. He spent those decades protesting his innocence and fighting the charge in every conceivable forum, leading to a string of appeals and inquiries.
In 2014 an inquiry into his conviction declared that he had probably been responsible but had not received a fair trial. The inquiry completely debunked a crucial piece of forensic evidence used by police to link gunshot residue found in Eastman’s boot to the murder scene.
The evidence was presented to the then jury as near-irrefutable proof that Eastman had been at the scene. Even the then trial judge, Ken Carruthers, paid tribute to the strength of the forensics when sentencing Eastman to life in November 1995.
“This investigation must surely rank as one of the most skilled, sophisticated and determined forensic investigations in the history of criminal investigation in Australia,” he said.
Eastman was freed in 2014 but placed on trial again, with prosecutors arguing there was enough residual evidence, even without the forensics, for a jury to find him guilty. The retrial was strongly supported by Winchester’s remaining family.
It is another day of mourning for the AFP and the Winchesters
John Hinchey
The retrial in the ACT supreme courthas spent months hearing from more than 100 witnesses this year, and a jury began deliberations last week, initially appearing to struggle to reach a verdict.
On Thursday morning they found Eastman not guilty.
Eastman said “thank you” to the judge after the verdict was read out.
The retrial had heard new evidence, largely in secret, about the possible involvement of the ’Ndrangheta – or Calabrian mafia – in Winchester’s killing.
Winchester had headed an undercover operation that brought down the mafia’s cannabis crop operations near Bungendore, in New South Wales, in the 1980s. The mafia had believed Winchester was a corrupt cop who had granted them protection.
Police have always maintained that they investigated the mafia links thoroughly at the time but could find no evidence of their involvement.
The Winchester family issued a statement saying they were “extremely disappointed”.
The ACT’s former victims of crime commissioner, John Hinchey, said police would also be heartbroken by the verdict.
“They would be heartbroken, I would believe, and grief-stricken, again,” he told reporters outside court. “It is another day of mourning for the AFP and the Winchesters.”
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Copyright © 2026 John Tomlinson