Colin Winchester

Who was Colin Winchester?

Colin Stanley Winchester APM, was an Assistant Commissioner in the Australian Federal Police. Winchester commanded ACT Police, the community policing component of the AFP Australian Federal Police responsible for the Australian Capital Territory.

On 10 January 1989, at about 9:15 pm, he was shot twice in the head with a Ruger 10/22 .22-calibre semi-automatic rifle fitted with a silencer and killed as he parked his police vehicle in the driveway of his house in Deakin, ACT. David Harold Eastman was convicted of Winchester's murder on November 11, 1995 after a four year surveillance investigation.

Following his murder The Winchester Police Centre, Benjamin Way, Belconnen, was established as the ACT Policing Headquarters. The Complex houses ACT Policing's Executive, administrative and support sections and elements of the Territory Investigations Group.

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

The story was dramatised in Police Crop: The Winchester Conspiracy.