Colleen Egan

Colleen Egan is one of the true advocacy journalists of our time, willing to bear immense personal sacrifice in order to see that justice is served for the disempowered.

The Perth-based journalist was the first to properly investigate the case of Andrew Mallard, convicted and detained in 1995 for the murder of jeweller Pamela Lawrence. Approached by the Mallard family in 1998, Colleen Egan’s subsequent investigations revealed that Mallard’s conviction had been largely based on a forced confession.

Colleen was the driving force behind the ultimately successful eight-year campaign to prove the Western Australian man’s innocence. Her stories and commentary on Mallard, published in The Sunday Times and The Australian, served to spark public interest in the family’s campaign to have him released.

This Walkley Award-winning investigative journalist is a much sought-after speaker for corporate events. Her presentation ‘Persevering to Achieve Results: An 8-Year Battle to Save a Man’s Life’ will inspire and motivate any audience.

Colleen is currently an assistant editor of The West Australian.

Colleen Egan’s insightful work inspired other journalists, to whom she volunteered her support, including the ABC’s Four Corners and documentary maker Michael Muntz, whose program Saving Andrew Mallard screened on the ABC in May 2006.

Her own work for The Sunday Times, “An Innocent Man Walks Free“, received a 2006 Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism. She also received News Limited’s 2007 Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Journalism for her work on the Andrew Mallard case.

Colleen and her team helped to uncover new evidence that led to Mallard’s release after 12 years of imprisonment, and a public apology from the WA Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan in October 2006. The conduct of the police involved in the case is now under scrutiny by WA’s Crime and Corruption Commission.

Her book on the case, Murderer No More: Andrew Mallard and the Epic Fight that Proved his Innocence, was published by Allen & Unwin in June 2010 and a finalist in the 2010 Walkley Book Awards.

Colleen Egan first made a name for herself as an investigative journalist in 2000 when her exclusive interviews with terrorist Jack Roche were published in The Australian. Her work has also taken her to London, covering trials at the Old Bailey.

She has shown what can be achieved when individuals commit themselves to a worthy cause. Colleen Egan used the full extent of her skills to doggedly pursue a worthy story and overturn a major miscarriage of justice.