Deaf mute man's murder conviction quashed

From: Age, Australia - Apr 1, 2005

A deaf mute man, Darryl Beamish, today had his appeal against his conviction for the murder of a Melbourne socialite 45 years ago upheld by Western Australia's Court of Appeal.

No retrial was ordered by the three judges when they handed down their unanimous decision to quash Mr Beamish's 1961 conviction for the axe murder of chocolate heiress Jillian Brewer in her Cottesloe flat in 1959.

Justices Christopher Steytler, Christine Wheeler and Carmel McLure ruled that a gallows confession to the murder by notorious serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke would have been capable of placing doubt in the mind of the original trial jury.

They said the confession, along with other evidence presented to last year's appeal hearing, meant there was a "significant possibility" Mr Beamish would have been acquitted.

It is the second time a Perth man has had a conviction overturned for a murder later attributed to Cooke.

In February 2002, WA appeal judges quashed John Button's conviction for the 1963 murder of his then girlfriend Rosemary Anderson, 17, and recorded Cooke as the teenager's real killer.

Mr Button was in court to hear today's ruling, as was Tony Cooke - the son of the serial killer who was the last man hanged in WA.

In a written statement, Mr Beamish said his life had been difficult since his conviction.

"My family and friends always believed I told the truth. They have always trusted me and supported me in every way," he said.

In 1961, Mr Beamish was condemned to death after allegedly confessing to murdering Ms Brewer.

The great-granddaughter of Sir MacPherson Robertson and heiress to his chocolate fortune, Ms Brewer was killed at her home with a tomahawk and a pair of scissors.

Mr Beamish's death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment, and he spent 15 years behind bars before being released in 1977.

- AAP

Copyright © 2005 The Age.