Bronwyn Winfield inquest debunks husband Jon’s property claims

An affidavit filed during the inquest into Bronwyn Winfield’s disappearance showed Jon Winfield did not lose multiple properties when his previous marriages broke down | NEW EPISODE

Jon Winfield pictured at Sharpes Beach at Skennars Head. Picture: Liam Mendes

The husband of missing Lennox Head woman Bronwyn Winfield received the lion’s share of a property settlement following the end of his previous marriage.

On the third day of an inquest into Bronwyn’s disappearance, recreated in the third season of The Australian’s Bronwyn podcast series, the lawyer representing Jon Winfield filed an affidavit clarifying the division of cash and assets from his 18-month marriage to a woman known as Dee (not her real name).

The pair owned a home on Sandstone Crescent in Lennox Head – the same street where Jon and Bronwyn Winfield would later buy land and build a house.

“It was sold prior to the divorce separation for $80,000, the vacant block of land having been purchased for $35,000,” Craig Leggat told former deputy state coroner Carl Milovanovich.

“Of the $80,000 … $20,000 was repaid to the mortgage, which was the St George Bank.

“As to the balance, $50,000 went to Mr Winfield.”

Dee received $10,000 in the settlement – a fact not conveyed to the coroner by Mr Winfield’s representative, but which was contained in her sworn statement to police. She also received the vehicle they shared and household furniture.

She told The Australian’s nat­ional chief correspondent Hedley Thomas that Mr Winfield resented having to sell the first Sandstone Crescent home following the breakdown of their marriage.

“I had to get a solicitor and go to court to get my share of the property,” she said.

“It was only a matter of cash because no property was either owned or acquired during the marriage, so there was no house capable of being transferred,” Mr Leggat said.

The lawyer said no property was bought or sold during Jon Winfield’s first marriage to Jennifer Mason.

“So it’s certainly not accurate to say that two houses have been lost to two previous wives based on the facts as I’m instructed.”

Maria Gluyas, friend and neighbour of Bronwyn Winfield’s in Byron Street in Lennox Head, told police in 1998 that Jon Winfield intended to keep the second Sandstone Crescent property following his separation from Bronwyn in early March 1993.

“Bronwyn also told me that John had told her he would do anything he had to do to keep the house, and he’d already lost two houses to other women and was not about to lose this one,” Ms Gluyas said in a sworn statement.

The matrimonial home of Bronwyn and Jon Winfield. Picture: Liam Mendes / The Australian

Jon Winfield also told Mrs Gluyas’s husband, Ian – known as Scruffy – that he’d lost more than one property in divorce settlements. “He said ‘This is my last house, Scruffy … I’m not doing that again. I’m not selling this place and [flogging] the family home to square things up’,” Mr Gluyas told Thomas.

“He just said that he was forced to sell the previous two, and there was no way in the world, no matter what went down, he was selling this one.”

Bronwyn Winfield vanished from the Sandstone Crescent home on the evening of May 16, 1993.

Mr Winfield maintains he played no role in her disappearance and says she voluntarily left the home to take a short holiday. She’s never been seen or heard from again, and Mr Winfield received 100 per cent of their assets.

At the inquest into her dis­appearance, Mr Milovanovich found Bronwyn was dead and recommended a known person – namely, Mr Winfield – be prosecuted for her murder.

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