A man who says he took David Harold Eastman's car to go rabbit shooting, potentially explaining the presence of damning gunshot residue in the boot, has been repeatedly questioned about why he never told police of the excursion.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The discovery of residue in the car was a key link in the chain of circumstantial evidence used against the disgruntled public servant over the 1989 killing of ACT police chief Colin Stanley Winchester.
The residue was used to connect him to the murder scene at Mr Winchester's neighbour's driveway, where the Assistant Federal Police Commissioner was shot twice at close range as he went to get out of his car. But evidence from Eastman's former friend and flatmate, heard for the first time on Monday, may help explain the presence of the gunshot residue.
Ben Smith, a former ACT relief teacher, told the inquiry he had borrowed the car for a spur-of-the-moment rabbit shooting trip years before the murder.
He said Eastman had come over to chat with his mother about economics or politics, adding that the two were very fond of each other.
But Mr Smith said he ''got jack of it'' and decided to leave. He asked Eastman if he could borrow his car, because his own Fiat had a slow leak in the tyre, and then secretly grabbed his rifle and ammunition from the roof cavity, before heading out along the Monaro Highway.
He said he never told Eastman about what he was doing, because Eastman hated guns and hunting.
Mr Smith said he drove to a spot near Michelago, about an hour away, and went shooting for about two hours.
He said that he noticed someone was watching him as he came back towards his car, so he hastily put the gun into Eastman's boot without putting it in its bag. At times, Mr Smith's evidence drew laughter from the public gallery, particularly when he spoke of ''committing sins'' when he stayed away from his mother's house with his partner at her home.
Mr Smith even had an exchange with the judge, Acting Justice Martin, about the reliability of Fiat cars, and began telling the inquiry how Eastman ''never seemed to make it with girls''.
At one point, Acting Justice Martin asked Mr Smith whether he had seen the work of Dame Edna Everage.
Mr Smith replied that he had, and Acting Justice Martin replied that he had thought as much. Mr Smith was repeatedly questioned by counsel assisting the inquiry, Liesl Chapman,
SC, why he had never told anyone of the hunting expedition, including the police who interviewed him in 1991.
Mr Smith said his gun was not registered in the ACT, and was therefore illegal.
''The point is the rifle, in one sense Liesl, was illegal, it was not registered in the ACT,'' he said.
He also said he had never been asked by police.
But Ms Chapman showed him a transcript of his police interview, in which he was asked whether he had taken Eastman's car on hunting and fishing trips.
Mr Smith replied that the police were asking about an occasion in the 1970s, saying they didn't ask specifically about the trip in the 1980s. ''He never asked me, and I didn't volunteer it,'' Mr Smith said.
Earlier on Monday, the international forensic expert who has cast doubt on original forensic work used against Eastman continued his evidence before the inquiry.
Northern Ireland-based forensic expert Dr James Wallace, one of most important witnesses in the inquiry so far, believes that a silencer was not used in the killing and that a shortened firearm was the more likely murder weapon.
That contradicts the forensic work of Victorian-based forensic scientist Robert Barnes, whose evidence helped to convict Eastman.
But, on Monday, Dr Wallace was forced to defend the integrity of his more recent gunshot residue testing and reject claims that his views on the original evidence in the 1995 trial had become clouded.
He also claimed he was able to maintain objectivity despite entertaining theories that Eastman was framed for the killing of Mr Winchester.
The inquiry continues on Tuesday.
