Darryl Beamish

Darryl Beamish (born 1941) is a Western Australian man who was wrongfully convicted of wilful murder in 1961 and sentenced to death by hanging.

Darryl Beamish, a deaf mute man, was aged 18 in 1959 when the 22-year-old socialite and MacRobertson's chocolate heiress, Jillian MacPherson Brewer, was slain in her Cottesloe flat by an intruder who mutilated her body with a tomahawk and a pair of dressmaking scissors.

In a book titled The Beamish Case (1966), Australian professor of jurisprudence Peter Brett argued that the affair was a "monstrous miscarriage of justice".

Western Australian journalist Estelle Blackburn's book Broken Lives prompted an appeal by John Button.

[5] Perth lawyers Tom Percy QC and Jonathan Davies had worked pro bono on both men's appeals for seven years from 1998.

[7] Attorney-General Christian Porter said the payment was "intended to express the State's sincere regret for what occurred and provide [Beamish] with a measure of comfort and financial security in his retirement.

Justice for Button and Beamish: Darryl Beamish, Estelle Blackburn and John Button at the Supreme Court celebrating Beamish's exoneration on 1 April 2005 (44 years after conviction), following Button's exoneration on 25 February 2002 (39 years after conviction).