Ten Years of Fighting for Justice for Eden Westbrook

Guy Barnett, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Corrections and Rehabilitation, 24 September 2025

Legislative Council passes vital reform

The Justice and Related Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2025 has passed the Legislative Council.

While the Bill amends a number of Acts, it most significantly amends the Coroners Act 1995, now providing for a clear and direct right of access by senior next of kin to coronial records.

Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Corrections and Rehabilitation, Guy Barnett, said this was a historic day.

“Today, I want to pay a special tribute to the Westbrook family,” the Attorney-General said.

“Their advocacy has been tireless and I hope that this reform is a step closer to the closure that they are seeking.

“Our Government will continue to help Tasmanians deal with the challenges they face, with compassion and commonsense.”

The Bill also includes minor amendments to the Corrections Act 1997, Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2020 and Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1998 to improve the operation of these Acts.

Media release – Jason and Amanda Westbrook, 11 September 2025

 TRUTH AND JUSTICE FOR EDEN WESTBROOK

“As a family, we are looking forward to witnessing the passing of a Bill to amend the Tasmanian Coroners Act 1995 to hopefully compel the Coroner to provide Eden’s autopsy photos to us, as senior next of kin, within 28 days of application,” Amanda and Jason Westbrook said today.

The Justice and Related Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill* 2025 (38 of 2025) was first tabled on 9 April this year and strongly supported during debate in the Lower House. It was due for debate in the Upper House on 5 June when the vote of No Confidence in the Premier was passed which meant that the Bill lapsed. There were then months of delay due to the election.

The Bill is now back before Parliament and our family is very grateful to Attorney-General Guy Barnett for progressing this matter. Mr Barnett is also our local Member and well known to us.

Mr Barnett has taken the time to meet with us and to listen carefully to our issues and concerns. We would also like to thank his former Chief of Staff for her kind attention to our matter.

“We hope this change to the law, and the recent review of the Coroners Act announced by the Attornry General, will also help other families in Tasmania who may be facing similar issues. It may also be a prompt for national reform in this area.

“The coronial system must always demonstrate compassion and respect for a deceased’s loved ones,” said the Westbrooks.

“Our family has been fighting for truth and justice for Eden for over ten years now.”

“We would also like to thank Senator Jacqui Lambie who has relentlessly pursued this matter. Her support has been unwavering and she has given four speeches in the Senate highlighting the many issues with the police investigation and the forensics, not the least of which was the involvement of Senior Sergeant Paul Reynolds as the Coroner’s Associate with regular oversight and direction of the case. The Weiss Review sadly failed to address our concerns.”

We also appreciated former Jacqui Lambie network member, Andrew Jenner, pursuing this issue in the House of Assembly. Special thanks also to Mike GaTney in the Legislative Council for his support to date.

Sadly, there are too many similarities between Eden’s case and that of Helen Bird, whose 2010 death in Hobart (supposedly by hanging), was revealed in 2024 as a possible staged murder by the Coroner.

We also have grave concerns about the manner and cause of Eden’s death as well as the time of death. We believe based on the evidence that Eden died on 18 February, some time after 02:00.

The preliminary report by Victorian independent forensic pathologist, Dr Byron Collins, raises serious concerns about the nature of Eden’s death. We would also like to give our heartfelt thanks to Dr Collins for his work to date.

We have very real concerns about the adequacy of the police investigation and subsequent reviews which we feel identify systemic issues within our system. Our concerns include the failure to interview a critical person of interest for years.

Another of our major concerns relates to the rope and its alleged and documented source. The rope was not from one of the cray pots from our home as stated by police. It appears that it was never seized by police as an exhibit.

We are so lucky to have some many good people in our corner. We are very thankful for the work done by Jay Walkderden, the producer of the Our Little Edey podcast, which has now had 6.2 million downloads. We would also like to note the interest taken by Mercury journalist, Amber Wilson, and the team at Channel 9’s Under Investigation, in our case.

And a thank you too to the pro bono experts, like the international rope expert in Canada, for his invaluable assistance.

There has been a dedicated team working quietly behind the scenes and we thank those people from the bottom of our hearts. We would like to thank Jo and Shaine Stephen for establishing the Our Little Edey website (www.ourlittleedey.com), promoting the Change.org petition and funding car stickers.

We also very much appreciate the personal and long time support of Adjunct Professor Donna Berthelsen.

We are also grateful for the many messages of support from around the world after people have listened to the podcast.

Thanks to the work of our previous pro bono lawyer, we now have a range of statements from key witnesses.

High profile Senior Counsel, Mr Philip Dunn KC, from Melbourne, has been following the case for some time now and has kindly offered his services pro bono to assist us in considering, and advancing, legal options.

Whilst we are so very pleased about the Bill, we are also asking the Attorney-General to ensure that the legislation is prioritised so that this particular amendment to the Coroners Act can commence as soon as possible.

There are precedents for such prioritisation. Ten years is far too long to wait, and to fight, to get to the truth of what happened that fateful night.

* The Bill provides that, under a proposed new s.58C(4), if a request is made to a coronial authority in respect of a coronial record, the coronial authority must provide a copy of the record to the person who made the request within 28 days after the request is made or such later period as agreed between the person and the coronial authority.

Background on the Eden Westbrook Story

Eden Westbrook was a 15-year-old girl from St Helens who was found dead in February 2015. She was found hanging from a tree in a public park, and a coroner’s finding determined that her death was a suicide. However, her parents, Jason and Amanda Westbrook, do not believe she took her own life and have been fighting for over a decade for a public inquest and a re-examination of the evidence. They allege that there were numerous flaws in the initial police investigation, including a failure to interview critical witnesses and a lack of forensic examination.

The Westbrook family’s efforts have been supported by others, including a whistleblower who claimed Eden’s death was a murder staged to look like a suicide. New evidence has also been presented, including an independent forensic pathology report suggesting a possible homicide, and claims that Eden had facial bruising and shattered teeth when her body was viewed by her sisters before cremation. The family has repeatedly sought access to Eden’s autopsy photos, believing the photos are key to the case.

The “Justice and Related Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2025” was first tabled Parliament on 9 April 2025 to address concerns about obtaining coronial records and would provide families like the Westbrooks with access to records such as autopsy photos.