Leonard Warwick allegedly warned first victim ‘don’t get in my way’ before death
Stephen Blanchard confided in a surfing buddy that his brother-in-law warned him not to interfere in his custody battle. One year later he was shot dead, a court has heard.
NSW
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One year before the alleged Family Court bomber’s first victim was shot dead, he confided in a friend that Leonard Warwick had warned him not to meddle in his custody battle, a Sydney trial heard.
Warwick is accused of launching a wild bombing and shooting spree which killed four people and began with the murder of his brother-in-law Stephen Blanchard in 1980.
Mr Blanchard’s former surfing mate told the NSW Supreme Court that in early 1979 he confided that his sister Andrea had moved back into their father’s place with her daughter, adding: “her husband’s hassling her, he wants custody of the baby.”
“He said: “he’s a really heavy guy and he’s warned me not to get in the way”,” witness David Shaw said on Tuesday.
Mr Blanchard’s body was found dumped in a Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park creek in February 1980 with a bullet wound to the head.
The prosecution alleges it kicked off a murderous campaign targeting judges and courts as Warwick fought for access to his only child.
The bricks used to weigh Mr Blanchard’s body down were similar to the bricks at the firefighter’s Casula home, where police found a note with the word “rope”, the Crown claims.
A former friend of the 72-year-old accused also testified that sometime before 1984, Warwick revealed he was “very angry” with the Family Court and was determined to get full custody of his child.
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“He felt that he was being treated unfairly, that they wouldn’t listen to what he had to say,” witness Judith Charrette told the judge-alone trial.
Ms Charrette said on another occasion Warwick told her police had raided his house and seized a number of guns, “but they hadn’t got them all because some were at his father’s place.”
Warwick has pleaded not guilty to 24 charges stemming from several high profile attacks between February 1980 and July 1985.
He’s charged with the shooting murder of Justice David Opas, the bombing of Justice Richard Gee’s home, the Parramatta Family Court building and the home of Justice Ray Watson in which his wife Pearl was killed.
In 1985, Warwick allegedly set off a bomb that ripped apart a Jehovah’s Witness hall, killing Graham Wyke and injuring 13 people offering support to his estranged wife.
Ms Charrette, who raised concerns about Warwick with the bomb taskforce in 1986, said he rarely spoke to her about Ms Blanchard.
“The only thing he actually said about his wife was that she was going to a different church and that the elders were telling her to do certain things, but he didn’t elaborate,” she said.
Under cross-examination, Ms Charrette said she wasn’t aware that a third friend who had been present during those conversations at her home doesn’t recall Warwick making any such admissions.
The trial, which began last May but has been plagued by delays linked to funding Warwick’s defence after he became penniless, continues before Justice Peter Garling.
