Judge predicted ‘bloodshed’ at Family Court before shooting death
A Family Court judge made a haunting prediction to his wife before he was allegedly gunned down by a furious father in a custody battle, a Sydney trial has heard.
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An alleged gunman had just rung the doorbell of Justice David Opas’ Sydney home when his young son told him: “don’t answer it daddy, eat your dinner”, a court heard.
The father-of-two had warned his wife there’d be “bloodshed” if security wasn’t tightened at the Family Court, adding that one disgruntled parent had already threatened to “get” him as he left work, his widow told the Supreme Court.
Kristin Opas testified at Leonard Warwick’s Supreme Court murder trial on Monday, saying her husband had also become concerned about safety at their eastern suburbs home, where he was allegedly shot dead nearly four decades ago. Warwick has pleaded not guilty to the murder.
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The Crown alleges the judge was killed by Warwick in the courtyard of his Woollahra home in 1980 after he made adverse orders in the former firefighter’s bitter custody battle.
The happy couple were having dinner with their two beloved children on June 23, when the front doorbell rang, Mrs Opas told police.
“When the bell sounded my son, Joshua, said: “don’t answer it daddy, eat your dinner”,” Mrs Opas said in an interview recorded the day after her husband died.
Mrs Opas heard no gunshots but became worried when her partner still hadn’t returned after five minutes and the family dog started barking aggressively.
She told police that she opened the front door to find her husband lying unconscious in their courtyard.
“I rushed over to where he was lying and I put his head in my hands and I said “David, David, what has happened?”,” Mrs Opas said.
After trying to perform CPR on her partner, Mrs Opas said she ran inside and told her son: “daddy has been shot or knifed, go and get Susie from next door” before running out into the street crying out for help.
While giving evidence, Ms Opas said her husband confided in her about certain litigants causing him angst before he died.
“He often commented on the anger of these people that were before him and said there’d be bloodshed at Parramatta Court if they didn’t have more security,” Mrs Opas told the judge-alone trial via video link from Tasmania.
The Crown alleges that building was one of several targets of a wild bombing spree launched by Warwick as he fought his ex-wife Andrea Blanchard for full access to their only child.
Justice Opas had not flagged any safety concerns when he got home from work that night, but had previously mentioned he was dealing with some “strange types of people”, his wife told police.
She said her husband recalled that in February or March that year he’d been waiting outside courts for his driver when a man whose case he’d presided over came up to him and said: “I will get you one day.”
The Crown alleges that Warwick told his ex-wife on May 20, 1980 that the judge presiding over their toxic custody dispute “won’t be around much longer”.
Justice Opas was one of four people that the Crown alleges Warwick killed including his brother-in-law Stephen Blanchard, Jehovah’s Witnesses Graham Wykes and Justice Ray Watson’s wife Pearl.
The 72-year-old has pleaded not guilty to 24 charges stemming from the high profile attacks between February 1980 and July 1985.
The trial continues before Justice Peter Garling.