Convicted of murder in 1961, Darryl Beamish, a deaf and non-verbal man, endured 45 years before his conviction was quashed – the longest period between conviction and exoneration in Australia. Just 18 at the time of the crime, he was initially sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. Despite serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke confessing to the crime, Beamish filed a record six appeals, serving 15 years in prison before finally being exonerated in 2005.

Accused of the 1959 axe murder of 22-year-old socialite Jillian Brewer in her Perth apartment, Beamish was prosecuted based solely on a confession coerced by police, who took advantage of his deafness and inability to speak. His conviction rested on four separate confessions which were later found to have been obtained through threats and manipulation. Police ignored inconsistencies between his statements and the crime scene, including how the murderer allegedly entered the apartment. In 1963, serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke – already convicted of multiple murders – provided a detailed confession to Brewer’s killing – one of more than six murders he admitted to. Despite this, authorities dismissed the confession as a fabrication. Cooke was hanged in 1964, while Beamish remained in prison, his repeated appeals denied. In 1977, after serving 15 years, he was released, but his conviction stood.

It wasn’t until 2002, after John Button had been exonerated for another Cooke murder, that Beamish found renewed hope. Journalist Estelle Blackburn’s book Broken Lives exposed the flaws in both cases and with legal representation from Malcolm McCusker KC, he lodged a final appeal. On April 1, 2005, the Western Australian Court of Appeal overturned his conviction in the same courthouse where he had once been sentenced to death. Despite spending 45 years as a convicted murderer, Beamish has received no official apology.