Notorious Family Court bomber found DEAD after killer’s ruthless reign of terror rocked Sydney

EXCLUSIVE 

Sydney’s Family Court bomber Leonard Warwick has died in jail die while serving three life sentences for murdering a judge, a judge’s wife and a church-goer.

The 78-year-old was pronounced dead at Long Bay Hospital about 10.45am on Friday and a report is being prepared for the coroner.

Warwick was convicted in July 2020 of 20 offences relating to six appalling crimes committed across Sydney between February 1980 and July 1985.

Those outrages included the shooting murder of Justice David Opas and the bomb-related murders of Pearl Watson, wife of Justice Raymond Watson.

Warwick was also convicted of murdering Graham Wykes, who died in an explosion at a Jehovah’s Witnesses hall.

Justice Peter Garling imposed three life sentences on the former firefighter in September 2020, finding the criminality involved was of the highest level for each murder.

‘The conduct of the offender was calculated, violent and hateful,’ he said.

Justice Garling also described the crimes as ‘evil’ and attacks on Australian democracy.

The so-called Family Court bomber waged a campaign of extreme violence against those he believed acted adversely towards him in his drawn-out dispute with his ex-wife Andrea Blanchard.

As well as the three murders, Warwick was found to have bombed Justice Richard Gee’s home with intent to murder him.

He also bombed the court building at Parramatta and placed a car bomb at the previous home of Ms Blanchard’s solicitor.

Justice Opas was shot dead when he answered the doorbell just as his family sat down to dinner.

Pearl Watson was saying goodbye to her husband when a bomb exploded at their front door.

Graham Wykes died and 13 people were seriously injured when a bomb ripped apart the Jehovah’s Witnesses hall. Congregation members had offered support to Warwick’s ex-wife.

Warwick’s convictions were a long time coming for the families of his victims, whose loved ones died or were maimed more than three decades ago.

Although Warwick was considered a suspect early on, he wasn’t arrested until July 2015.

Prosecutor Ken McKay had contended seven events were ‘inextricably linked’ to drawn-out Family Court proceedings involving Warwick and his ex-wife, which ran from 1979 to 1986.

Ms Blanchard testified the marriage started normally before Warwick turned violent and abusive.

She left him in March 1979 after he assaulted her when she planned to go to a Tupperware party.

‘He started punching me and then pushed me down to the floor and started kicking me on the body and repeatedly punching me in the arm,’ Ms Blanchard told the NSW Supreme Court.

Warwick once told her he could shoot her father ‘at any time’ and also said Justice Opas ‘won’t be there much longer’ – weeks before he was shot dead at his home in 1980.

Justice Opas, who was shot when he answered the doorbell, was the first judge to deal with the Warwick case and made adverse rulings against him.

He had predicted blood would be shed if more court security wasn’t provided.

Justice Gee took over the case, also making numerous orders adverse to Warwick.

His home was bombed in 1984, as was the Family Court registry building at Parramatta where Warwick’s cases were heard.

The home of Justice Watson, the third judge to make adverse orders, was then bombed, killing his wife Pearl.

Those four events were ‘book-ended’ by events of violence which were related to Ms Blanchard – the shooting murder of her brother Stephen Blanchard and a car bomb at the previous home of her solicitor.

But Justice Garling acquitted Warwick of murdering Mr Blanchard, whose body was found with bricks attached around his waist in a national park creek after he went missing in 1980.

In 1985, a man who lived in a home formerly owned by Ms Blanchard’s solicitor, found a bomb under his car bonnet when he opened it to do some repairs.

He’d sat in the car and put the key in the ignition before changing his mind about moving the Holden Torana into the garage to do some work.

The final event was a bomb which ripped apart a Jehovah’s Witnesses hall, killing Mr Wykes and injuring 13 other members of the congregation which had offered support to Ms Blanchard.

Joy Wykes testified her husband was sitting at the end of the row and they were holding hands.

Because it was quite a cold day, she had a little rug and placed it over their hands.

Her husband realised why she did it and whispered ‘I love you’ and ‘that’s when the bomb went off’.

Warwick’s solicitor Alan Conolly had submitted there was not ‘a scintilla of acceptable evidence’ that his client had committed extreme violence at any point in his life.

A Corrective Services spokeswoman confirmed Warwick’s death to Daily Mail Australia. 

‘Any death in custody is immediately reported to the NSW Coroner and subject to a compulsory, rigorous public inquiry,’ the spokeswoman said.

‘Corrective Services NSW and NSW Police investigate all deaths in custody regardless of the circumstances.’