January 13, 2021 • 34 mins
For more than three decades, the seven crimes known as the Family Court Murders remained the worst series of unsolved serial killings in Australian criminal history. Between 1980 and 1985, four people were murdered and dozens critically injured in a cruel five-year reign of terror across Sydney, aimed at the very heart of the country’s judicial system. Five bombings and multiple shootings targeting judges of the Family Court of Australia, their families, a lawyer and innocent members of the public. There was only ever one prime suspect linked to all seven crimes but despite years of surveillance he was never charged. Leonard Warwick thought he was invincible, that he’d got away with murder. In 2013, a major Channel Seven investigation, led by award-winning journalist Ross Coulthart, would blow the case wide open. For the very first time in more than a quarter of a century, all the main witnesses who until that point had been too afraid to speak out, including Warwick’s daughter and ex-wife, would describe the events that rocked Australia. Coulthart’s forensic investigation would put the horrific murders and bombings back in the public focus – and in the spotlight of authorities. Unknown to Warwick, and long forgotten by police, was the crucial mistake that would bring him down. Buried deep in a box of archived evidence, Warwick’s blood collected from one of the bomb sites that would be analysed using advanced DNA technology. In this special, Coulthart returns to the most dangerous story of his career with the next chapter and major new development in this ground-breaking investigation – was there another victim?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The following program includes coarse language and violence.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
He was some people were killed over me.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
The story no one was gay to touch.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
He is the manifestation of pure evil.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
A little girl, her violent, deranged, they were violent man,
serial killing father. Oh, I used to shoot rabbits. I
suppose that's pretty violent.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
The most frightening man in Australia. People have to understand
how bad this man was.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Possessive. It's mine as mine and I'm going to have
what's mine.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Two shootings, four birders and five bobbies.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Who was spitting in the eye of justice in Australian
being famed by a police.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
He almost got away with it. Who is a very
very clever no the riveting inside story.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
You are in danger. This man is a total psychopath.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
The vital breakthrough.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
He's bled everywhere, that trapped.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
The family court bomber. How this confrontation changed everything and
in a major new development, is there a new victim
effectively disappeared off the face of the planet.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Well looking to buy you some wars?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Hello, I'm Ross coultheart. Of all the investigations I've covered,
this is the one that's given me the greatest satisfaction
to solve a serial killer who came so close to
getting away with it. He maimed children, widowed wives, and
assassinated judges and tonight, in a sinister New de development,
(02:01):
did Leonard John Warick murder his own sister. Warwick was
the madman amongst us, A former soldier, former fireman, a
crack shot with a very big grutch, the family court bomber.
For detectives, the question was not so much who done it,
(02:24):
but how do we prove it? And for thirty years
they didn't have an answer. Then, on a cold winter's morning,
Lenn Warick walked in front of Channel seven's cameras, and
the coldest of cold cases suddenly got very hot. I've
(02:44):
got a red.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Dots please quick, He's going to.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
The day I confronted Lenn Warwick was the beginning of
the end for him. But in all honesty, some feared
it might be the end for me. Why don't you
(03:28):
From the moment my team and I began investigating this madman,
we were warned we were putting our lives at risk.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Look, you are in danger. This man is a total psychopath.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Leonard Warwick's mind is an evil place, and few people
know it better than retired detective Kevin Woods for more
than thirty Warwick was more than a nemesis to Woods.
He was an obsession different from every other suspect the
(04:09):
decorated cop had ever pursued, because he was the one,
the only one that got away, and for Woods, in
more ways than one, it nearly killed him.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
As extremely worried because a witness that I interviewed said
he was looking for my address. So he is very
very concerned. This blow boy, did mackarean. I have never
met a person as dangerous as what Leonard Warwick is.
He stopped at nothing in his quest to get custody
of his daughter.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
He took it personally.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Because everybody that stood in his way, were it judges
or lawyers, or the church members who helped to hide
the daughter, he went after all of them.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
He fought very very hard to keep you, didn't he Why?
What is it about your dad's personality that made him fight?
Do you think he really loved you?
Speaker 5 (05:09):
Yeah, I'm possessive. It's mine as mine, and I'm going
to have what's mine.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Forty years ago, Trudy Warick was a little girl at
the center of a bitter custody dispute. Her mother, Andrea,
battled for years to keep her, but her father, Lenn
continually defied orders of the family court. Why was Leonard
(05:37):
Warwick so motivated to murder?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
I believe he is a psychopath who wouldn't take no
for an answer. He stopped at nothing in his quest
to custody of his daughter.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
He took it personally.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
He was Some people were killed, oh for.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Me, two shootings, four murders and five bombings. So what
I've got here is an interview that Lynn Warick did
back in nineteen eighty six. I swet you to watch it,
and oh my god. When Lynn Warwick was named as
(06:24):
prime suspect for the family court attacks, he gave one interview.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
What sort of a person you think would want to
kill a family court judge?
Speaker 1 (06:34):
A person that was probably disturbed, very upset.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
Maybe you ever been upset at a decision against you
in the family court?
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Not quite that upset, Terry.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Are you a violent man?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
No, Terry, I'm not remember that question, Violet.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Thing you've done well, I used to shoot rahmmits I
suppose that's pretty violent.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
How violent? Was Lynn Warrick? Violent?
Speaker 7 (07:01):
Very mind controlling, very physical?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
And is that why you chose to leave him.
Speaker 8 (07:08):
Yes, I wouldn't be alive today if I didn't leave him,
he'd come home and if he didn't have a good day,
he'd come straight in and whack start whacking. The night
I left him, he had me pinned down in the
lound room and he had his foot with his fiber
gay boosts on stomping it, kicking into me.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Fearing for her life, Andrea fled from the house, leaving
her young daughter inside.
Speaker 8 (07:37):
I just ran, I ran out, I got the keys,
and I unlocked the door, and I just ran.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
It was the last straw for Andrea, who married Lynn
five years before. For her own protection, she asked her
brother Stephen to go back with her to collect Trudy.
Speaker 8 (07:57):
Stephen went up knocked on the front door. When opened
the door and Steve's Steve said, look, mate, we just
want the baby. Just hand the baby over, and that
was it, and Len just slammed the door.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Eventually, with the help of the family court, Andrea got
Trudy back. They moved in with Stephen, who now became
a target of Lenn Warwick's anger. Let's go back to
February nineteen eighty what.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Happened good night my brother.
Speaker 8 (08:32):
My brother was killed in the house and taken from
the house while my daughter and I slept in the house.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Late that night, Stephen finished work at Reevesby Workers Club
and walked home.
Speaker 9 (08:49):
Andrew and Trudy slept in the front bedroom closest to
the front of the house, and Stephen slept in the
back bedroom. Stephen came home, went to bed, and somebody
came in and shot him in the head and carried
him out.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
He was shot dead in his bed at night, and
his body carried away and dumped in the Hawksbury River.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Was lend Warwick strong enough to do that? Was he
capable of doing that?
Speaker 5 (09:19):
He was a slip fight got to be hitch maybe
your shoulder and carry him out of a burning building.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
They all learn that.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
When Andrea awoke the next morning, she wasn't concerned, thinking
that Stephen must have stayed over with his girlfriend. It
was only later that the police found tiny specks of
blood on Stephen's bedroom wall. Stephen was missing for six days.
So where was Stephen found?
Speaker 7 (09:50):
Karen Creek.
Speaker 10 (09:53):
He'd been in the water for a few days and
flooded the service. Despite having a living Housewicks tied around him.
I was pretty rugged.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Clearly murder clearly, yeah, no doubt, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
You can see the gunshot wind in the head. Mick
mcgahann was a local detective on the case at the time.
How would a murderer conceal the noise and the clatter
and the clamor that's made when somebody's being killed.
Speaker 10 (10:18):
Probably, there's the way I think about it. It's putting
a cushion or some other device over the end of
the barrel.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Did your dad ever show you any weapons in the house?
Speaker 5 (10:28):
Oh, show me any weapons. We used to go rabbit shooting,
fox shooting, you know, so, Yeah, I saw rifles and
bullets and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Crackshot.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
If Lynn did murder Stephen, why would he have murdered him?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Well?
Speaker 9 (10:47):
What better way do you back at the family who
were helping Andrea to get away from him, then to
kill the only son, and Stephen was the first one
who approached him to try and get the child of him.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Four months after Stephen died, there was a judge murdered
in Wallara.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
That's right, Judge Opas shot at point blank range at
his front door while his children are having dinner.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Justice David Opus was married to Kristin. They had two children,
Joshua and Persia, who were then eight and six. She
and David had been married for ten years.
Speaker 11 (11:37):
He was absolutely delightful. He had the most beautiful sense
of humor. He was such a loving, loving father for
the children.
Speaker 12 (11:48):
Arrot.
Speaker 11 (11:49):
He was a lovely boyfriend and then husband, and he
was just full of life.
Speaker 6 (11:58):
Did you have any reasons to be angry at Judge opis?
Speaker 1 (12:03):
No, I don't think so.
Speaker 6 (12:05):
Did he preside over the early part of your divorce?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I did. Yes. One month after Justice David Opus had
briefly taken away Lynn Warwick's access to his daughter for
defying court orders, someone came to the judge's front door.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
The doorbell rang.
Speaker 7 (12:28):
Josh said to David.
Speaker 11 (12:30):
There's the door.
Speaker 13 (12:31):
Ready, eat your tea.
Speaker 11 (12:33):
He left the room, went out shut the front door.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
An alarm was going off in the street, muffling what
happened next.
Speaker 11 (12:44):
We waited and waited, and I said to the children,
that is a long time.
Speaker 14 (12:49):
I think I'll go out and see what's what what's
going on?
Speaker 11 (12:53):
I went out open the front door, and lying on
the ground was David.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Justus Opus was shot with a twenty two caliber long rifle.
When you heard that Judge Opus had been murdered.
Speaker 7 (13:08):
What did you think he's had involvement in it?
Speaker 1 (13:16):
A judge murdered on his doorstep in front of his family.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Never before in Australian history have sitting judges burned the
target of lowful force in this country. Never before. That
shows you the makeup of this person.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
The murder happened at seven ten pm, thirty three year
old len Warwick had finished his firefighting shift at least
seventy minutes earlier. There is no physical evidence linking len
Warwick to this crime scene, no blood, no fingerprints, no DNA.
(13:56):
But minutes after the Opus murder there is an eyewitness
a hunt of a man running away from the scene
carrying a long canvas bag with white handles. Under hypnosis,
the witness described a man about five foot ten in height,
twenty five to thirty years old, of solid build, with
(14:17):
dark hair and a medium complexion. Len Warwick refused a
police request to appear in a police lineup before any witness.
Andrea and len Warwick had a very significant conversation in
May of nineteen eighty, which she later detailed in evidence
(14:40):
to the Coroner's Court. They were both appearing here before
Justice Opus at what was then the Paramatta Family Court.
During the luncheon adjournment, Warwick allegedly told Andrea she wouldn't
have to worry about Justice Opus because he won't be
(15:00):
much longer. She said, why is he going on holidays?
Warwick allegedly replied, no, he just won't be there at all.
Five weeks later, Justice Opus was dead.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Now that's pretty compelling evidence that he intended to kill
the judge.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Did you shoot him? No? Did you have any knowledge
of them?
Speaker 15 (15:24):
All?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Had no idea that might happen to him.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
No.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Here at the fire station where Lynn Warwick worked, police
did a search and in a locker used by Warwick
they found news articles detailing the murder of Justice Opus.
They also searched his home, where they found a number
of firearms, none of them the murder weapon. Do you
feel that the police at this stage were aggressively pursuing
(15:53):
Lin for the murder of Judge Opis and the murder
of Stephen Yes?
Speaker 7 (15:57):
Yes, yes he was number one.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
So he was their number one prime suspect.
Speaker 7 (16:02):
Main number one suspect.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
We suspected it was Lynn Warwick from the beginning years.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
He knew that you knew it was him. Yes, and
even when he knew you were on his tail, he
still thought he could get away with it, didn't he?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Oh, absolutely, yes, He's a very clever man.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
After Justice David Opus was murdered, Justice Richard g a
father of two, took over his family court Caseload Allison,
his daughter, was twelve and scarce.
Speaker 14 (16:39):
Well, I knew that Justice Opus had been shot dad,
and Dad said, they've offered me the job to replace him.
And I just had this well, I don't know, I
call it sixth cents that something was going to happen
to us.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
March nineteen eighty four, Allison's mum was ill in hospital. Allison,
her dad, and her fifteen year old brother Stephen were
asleep at home.
Speaker 14 (17:11):
I just had a really loud clap of thunder, the
ladest I'd ever heard. And then I turned into my
room and I just went into shock. Just saw a
debris or cover in my room. My drawers had fallen in,
everything had just crashed into the center of my room,
and it was just like I'd broken up in a
(17:32):
movie or a nightmare. I went into the hallway once
I climbed over my furniture and I just saw the
hallway wasn't there anymore, It was just fully carved in.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Are you thinking about your father? At the stage, I did.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Hope that Dad was okay.
Speaker 14 (17:50):
Stephen said, well, look, we'll find him once we get
out of the house. So we went through his window.
We were around the back of the house and we
met Dad on the back deck. He was covered in debris,
dust over his whole body. Looked like a ghost, except
that he had blood pouring down his legs from his thighs.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
He'd been cut in his legs.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Yes, yes, with glass.
Speaker 14 (18:13):
There was a beam that fell over my mom's side
of the bed, which narrowly missed him.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Tell me what you thought as soon as you saw
the front of your house?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
I just cried. It just felt really sad.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Just looks like a war.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Zone in suburban Sydney.
Speaker 6 (18:33):
Had Judge g ordered you to hand over your daughter
to your former wife during the divorce?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Oh not ty sure, Terry.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Justice G had previously issued orders for the sale of
Lenn Warwick's home after his divorce. He restricted access to
his daughter and even issued an arrest warrant when he
failed to return Trudy after an access visit. When you
heard about that bomb, what did you think?
Speaker 7 (19:08):
I felt really.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Sick?
Speaker 7 (19:13):
Had another person been hurt a week before that?
Speaker 8 (19:17):
We were appeared in that court in front of him.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
This was an attack on the administration of justice in Australia.
Judges would make a ruling against him, and he responded
with louthal thought.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Sunday night the following month, the Family Court at Paramatta
is blown up. All of Warwick's proceedings were heard here.
Miraculously no one dies.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
The bomb of the Paramatta Court was set the night
before he was due to appear. He didn't want to
appear there the next time day and he didn't. The bomb
went off.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
The court was destroyed, but the bombing doesn't stop. Three
months later, Justice Ray Watson, who's taken over from Justice
g is about to leave his Greenwich home for wood.
(20:25):
His wife Pearl is killed instantly.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Pearl Watson's bomb was at the front door. As soon
as she opened that door an inch, the bomb went
off and blew her through the back wall.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Justice Watson survives. Their front door had been booby trapped.
The bomb exploded at eight point fifteen am. It contained
several kilos of jellyg Knight. Len Warwick's father was an
expert in explosives and almost certainly passed the knowledge bomb
(21:01):
to his son, So there's no doubt in your mind
he knew how to make a bomb.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
When you heard that the wife of a judge had
been murdered, what was your reaction?
Speaker 7 (21:17):
Chopped her?
Speaker 8 (21:23):
Another person has been hurt, another view is destroyed.
Speaker 13 (21:35):
I can't it over.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 9 (21:44):
I'm sorry, Darling, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Justice Watson left hospital to attend his wife's funeral in March.
He'd made orders restricting len Warick's access to his daughter.
The police have said that it's a mathematical improbability that
the same person was the common link in so many
explosions and murders.
Speaker 7 (22:16):
Every time we appeared in each in front of.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Each judge, the only thing that connected all of those
crimes was len Warick.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Yes, that's true. I believe that he is the manifestation
of pure evil.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
After Pearl Watson's death, family court judges Bob Hawke and
New South Wales Premier nevill Ran offered half a million
dollar reward.
Speaker 15 (22:44):
We don't intend to stand idly by and tolerate these
sorts of attacks not merely on individuals, but on the
very basis of the system and it operates in this community.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
A joint federal State police task force was also established.
All eyes were now focused on the prime suspect.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Where federal surveileance officers and state surveillance officers were used
up virtually every surveillance officer in New South Wales in Australia.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
But no matter how hard they tried, the police couldn't
catch him in the act. Warwick thought he was invincible.
In nineteen eighty five, another bomb was found under the
bonnet of a car outside a house here in Northmead,
near Para Matta. The intended victim had recently moved from
(23:42):
the address, but was still listed in the phone book.
The significance of it was that the car was outside
the home of what used to be the house of
your then family Court solicitor mister Watts.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Was placed in that car. This is while our task
force was still going.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
What of mister What say to you?
Speaker 8 (24:05):
At the time, I've got a phone call and he
said I won't be able to.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Act on your behalf And that was basically.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
He was saying he was too front for his own
safety to act for you any longer.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
And my knowledge of that, No, Jerry, what sort of
a person is this person?
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Is he mad?
Speaker 3 (24:39):
He's absolutely mad? He's a psychopath.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
But for many years len Warwick presented as a harmless
retiree living with his new wife in southwest Sydney. In
nineteen eighty five, his former wife, Andrea was living in fear.
On the ninth of February, then came to her home
and bashed her. That night, a bomb was planted in
(25:09):
her lawyer's car. Andrea's sister, Judy, was also threatened.
Speaker 7 (25:18):
Phone calls did you kill her and her children?
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Who was making those phone calls?
Speaker 9 (25:22):
Len Police said that it was a good idea for
me to get.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Out of Sydney because I was probably next.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
On the list. Judy belonged to a Jehovah's Witness congregation
near where len Warwick lived. She asked church members to
help move her, Andrea and Andrea's daughter to a secret
location hundreds of kilometers away. Greg Hahn drove the removal van.
(25:50):
Do you remember when you helped move Andrea's possessions? Yes,
you came to her house, she opened the door. Do
you remember anything about her features that day, black eye.
It looked like she'd had some violence. Did she say,
who'd done that too?
Speaker 8 (26:06):
Is?
Speaker 1 (26:06):
She said it was Linda had done this her words.
Speaker 12 (26:12):
What I remember about that Sunday morning, it was spectacular,
was one of those mornings in Sydney in winter, you
know where the sky is blue, blue, blue, not a cloud.
Speaker 7 (26:26):
The gum trees look fabulous.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Also with Sue and Peter Schultz in the Jehovah's witness
hall that day were Graham and Joy Wakes and two
of their three daughters. Joy had been married to Graham
for over fifteen years.
Speaker 16 (26:45):
He was always calm and loving, quiet man, but if
we could be.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Lots of fun.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Was he a good father?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
He was an excellent dad.
Speaker 12 (26:57):
People.
Speaker 6 (26:57):
This week we're reading from John six of sixty eight.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
There were one hundred and twenty five people in the
church that including twenty five children.
Speaker 13 (27:07):
Therefore, Jesus said to the twelve, you do not want
to go also, do you?
Speaker 16 (27:13):
It was an older building, so it was in the
middle of July, so it was quite cold, and we
were holding hands and I thought, oh, his hand would
be really cold. So we had a small rug over
a knee and I pulled it up over our hands,
and he.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Knew, of course why I was doing it.
Speaker 16 (27:29):
To warm his hand, and he turned to me and whispered,
I love you.
Speaker 7 (27:34):
And that was the last thing I remember, and we
have believed.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Could you remember it being?
Speaker 9 (27:47):
No?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Just went years, just went numb.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
And remember flash?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, flash heat. I don't remember heat.
Speaker 17 (27:57):
No, just a lot of debris and just bits of
little fine bits of wood falling.
Speaker 13 (28:04):
After the bomb, it was dead, silent, there was no noise.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
The air started to thin out. It virtually blew half
the Kingdom hall away.
Speaker 12 (28:15):
I thought, I'm having a nightmare. It must be a nightmare.
So I started to call out for Peter, because I
thought of if Peter would just wake me up, everything
will be fine.
Speaker 13 (28:23):
And then she started calling out in a sort of
a muffled way, Peter, Peter. Her upper lip was cut
right across and was hanging down near her chin, her eyes,
her whole face, everything was swelling up so quickly, so
I tried to tend to her. Just to the side
(28:48):
of Sue was one of our friends, a woman, and
she was calling out for her husband who was killed.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
That's great, that's great. Graham Wikes dies instantly, Joy Wikes
and Sue Schultz suffer terrible injuries. Dozens more are badly hurt.
Fourteen year old Elaine Whites is carried to an ambulance.
(29:20):
Were you looking for your mum and dad at that day?
Speaker 17 (29:23):
I knew where they were towards my left, and so
I did look around that as they were carrying me
out then, and I did see a blanket sort of
put out to cover obviously, which I realized later was
my dad's body.
Speaker 18 (29:39):
And I heard one of the oldest in our correiations.
So yeah, her father, Grahams died. I prayed to God
and said, if that was the best thing, because he
might have suffered and been in a lot of pain,
that might have been the best thing.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
I understand.
Speaker 15 (30:00):
In two weeks time, August, you were about to celebrate
your sixteenth anniversary.
Speaker 7 (30:05):
That r Yes, he.
Speaker 16 (30:08):
Was a fine, fine man, and he's missed out on
life because somebody done a very bad thing.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
It was obvious that he said it there with deliberate
intent to kill probably the whole congregation, because the congregation
of that church assisted Leonard Warwick's wife to take away
the daughter and move them up the north coast to
get away from Leonard Warwick.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
The bomb was triggered by an alarm clock. The same
explosives were used in the attempted car bombing of Andrea's
lawyer five months earlier. The night before, there had been
upbreak in at the church.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
So I believe it was Areki because he was looking
for somewhere to place his bomb. On that day, Leonard
Warwick broke a plane of glass on a side window
of the church. He reached in through that broken glass,
and there was a window winder and he wound the
window out so that he could gain access to the church.
(31:17):
In so doing he lacerated part of his body, and
upon entering the church in the dark, he bled everywhere.
It's important for people to understand that back in the
nineteen eighties DNA evidence did not exist. We knew that
that blood was a positive, but a large proportion of
(31:40):
the society has I think it's thirty eight percent have
a positive blood. So it wasn't sufficient to charge you.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
It's just four minutes drive from Lynn Warick's then house
in Casula to hear it the Jehovah's Witness Hall.
Speaker 6 (32:01):
The bombing of the Jehovah's Witness Hall, the same church,
the same congregation which offered your white sanctuary. A lot
of coincidences, isn't it connecting with you?
Speaker 9 (32:10):
Well, I now know about the activities of the Jehovah's
Witnesses in relation to the hiding of my daughter.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I didn't know that at the time.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
He'd been asking people in the congregation where you and
Andrea and Trudy were, hadn't he?
Speaker 9 (32:26):
Yes, he did approach people in that congregation, and friends
sort of contacted me and said that he's been making
phone calls ask him where we are.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
So you're saying that at the time of the church bombing,
you didn't know of your wife's involvement with the Jehovah's
witness You knew nothing about it.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Now, Nine days after the deadly explosion, federal police went
to Warwick's home with a search warrant. Used to be
interviewed and refused to give a blood sample. The police
discovered three handwritten pages containing the phone numbers of prominent
(33:11):
Jehovah's Witness members. After the bombing of the church hall,
Andrea's life was in turmoil. In hiding and scared, she
took the heartbreaking decision to hand her seven year old
daughter Trudy back to Len. So you gave Len Warwick
(33:32):
full time custody of Trudy at that point? Yes, how
was that decision?
Speaker 8 (33:39):
I didn't want to do it, but I thought, what,
maybe you'll leave everybody alone, leave leave us in peace.
Maybe he might change with her and be appreciated to
have his daughter.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
With it with him.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Interesting then, isn't it that, ever since Trudy was given
back to Len full time, everything stopped, everything stopped, everything
stopped
The following program includes coarse language and violence.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
He was some people were killed over me.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
The story no one was gay to touch.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
He is the manifestation of pure evil.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
A little girl, her violent, deranged, they were violent man,
serial killing father. Oh, I used to shoot rabbits. I
suppose that's pretty violent.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
The most frightening man in Australia. People have to understand
how bad this man was.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Possessive. It's mine as mine and I'm going to have
what's mine.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Two shootings, four birders and five bobbies.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Who was spitting in the eye of justice in Australian
being famed by a police.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
He almost got away with it. Who is a very
very clever no the riveting inside story.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
You are in danger. This man is a total psychopath.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
The vital breakthrough.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
He's bled everywhere, that trapped.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
The family court bomber. How this confrontation changed everything and
in a major new development, is there a new victim
effectively disappeared off the face of the planet.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Well looking to buy you some wars?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Hello, I'm Ross coultheart. Of all the investigations I've covered,
this is the one that's given me the greatest satisfaction
to solve a serial killer who came so close to
getting away with it. He maimed children, widowed wives, and
assassinated judges and tonight, in a sinister New de development,
(02:01):
did Leonard John Warick murder his own sister. Warwick was
the madman amongst us, A former soldier, former fireman, a
crack shot with a very big grutch, the family court bomber.
For detectives, the question was not so much who done it,
(02:24):
but how do we prove it? And for thirty years
they didn't have an answer. Then, on a cold winter's morning,
Lenn Warick walked in front of Channel seven's cameras, and
the coldest of cold cases suddenly got very hot. I've
(02:44):
got a red.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Dots please quick, He's going to.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
The day I confronted Lenn Warwick was the beginning of
the end for him. But in all honesty, some feared
it might be the end for me. Why don't you
(03:28):
From the moment my team and I began investigating this madman,
we were warned we were putting our lives at risk.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Look, you are in danger. This man is a total psychopath.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Leonard Warwick's mind is an evil place, and few people
know it better than retired detective Kevin Woods for more
than thirty Warwick was more than a nemesis to Woods.
He was an obsession different from every other suspect the
(04:09):
decorated cop had ever pursued, because he was the one,
the only one that got away, and for Woods, in
more ways than one, it nearly killed him.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
As extremely worried because a witness that I interviewed said
he was looking for my address. So he is very
very concerned. This blow boy, did mackarean. I have never
met a person as dangerous as what Leonard Warwick is.
He stopped at nothing in his quest to get custody
of his daughter.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
He took it personally.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Because everybody that stood in his way, were it judges
or lawyers, or the church members who helped to hide
the daughter, he went after all of them.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
He fought very very hard to keep you, didn't he Why?
What is it about your dad's personality that made him fight?
Do you think he really loved you?
Speaker 5 (05:09):
Yeah, I'm possessive. It's mine as mine, and I'm going
to have what's mine.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Forty years ago, Trudy Warick was a little girl at
the center of a bitter custody dispute. Her mother, Andrea,
battled for years to keep her, but her father, Lenn
continually defied orders of the family court. Why was Leonard
(05:37):
Warwick so motivated to murder?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
I believe he is a psychopath who wouldn't take no
for an answer. He stopped at nothing in his quest
to custody of his daughter.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
He took it personally.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
He was Some people were killed, oh for.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Me, two shootings, four murders and five bombings. So what
I've got here is an interview that Lynn Warick did
back in nineteen eighty six. I swet you to watch it,
and oh my god. When Lynn Warwick was named as
(06:24):
prime suspect for the family court attacks, he gave one interview.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
What sort of a person you think would want to
kill a family court judge?
Speaker 1 (06:34):
A person that was probably disturbed, very upset.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
Maybe you ever been upset at a decision against you
in the family court?
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Not quite that upset, Terry.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Are you a violent man?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
No, Terry, I'm not remember that question, Violet.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Thing you've done well, I used to shoot rahmmits I
suppose that's pretty violent.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
How violent? Was Lynn Warrick? Violent?
Speaker 7 (07:01):
Very mind controlling, very physical?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
And is that why you chose to leave him.
Speaker 8 (07:08):
Yes, I wouldn't be alive today if I didn't leave him,
he'd come home and if he didn't have a good day,
he'd come straight in and whack start whacking. The night
I left him, he had me pinned down in the
lound room and he had his foot with his fiber
gay boosts on stomping it, kicking into me.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Fearing for her life, Andrea fled from the house, leaving
her young daughter inside.
Speaker 8 (07:37):
I just ran, I ran out, I got the keys,
and I unlocked the door, and I just ran.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
It was the last straw for Andrea, who married Lynn
five years before. For her own protection, she asked her
brother Stephen to go back with her to collect Trudy.
Speaker 8 (07:57):
Stephen went up knocked on the front door. When opened
the door and Steve's Steve said, look, mate, we just
want the baby. Just hand the baby over, and that
was it, and Len just slammed the door.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Eventually, with the help of the family court, Andrea got
Trudy back. They moved in with Stephen, who now became
a target of Lenn Warwick's anger. Let's go back to
February nineteen eighty what.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Happened good night my brother.
Speaker 8 (08:32):
My brother was killed in the house and taken from
the house while my daughter and I slept in the house.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Late that night, Stephen finished work at Reevesby Workers Club
and walked home.
Speaker 9 (08:49):
Andrew and Trudy slept in the front bedroom closest to
the front of the house, and Stephen slept in the
back bedroom. Stephen came home, went to bed, and somebody
came in and shot him in the head and carried
him out.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
He was shot dead in his bed at night, and
his body carried away and dumped in the Hawksbury River.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Was lend Warwick strong enough to do that? Was he
capable of doing that?
Speaker 5 (09:19):
He was a slip fight got to be hitch maybe
your shoulder and carry him out of a burning building.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
They all learn that.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
When Andrea awoke the next morning, she wasn't concerned, thinking
that Stephen must have stayed over with his girlfriend. It
was only later that the police found tiny specks of
blood on Stephen's bedroom wall. Stephen was missing for six days.
So where was Stephen found?
Speaker 7 (09:50):
Karen Creek.
Speaker 10 (09:53):
He'd been in the water for a few days and
flooded the service. Despite having a living Housewicks tied around him.
I was pretty rugged.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Clearly murder clearly, yeah, no doubt, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
You can see the gunshot wind in the head. Mick
mcgahann was a local detective on the case at the time.
How would a murderer conceal the noise and the clatter
and the clamor that's made when somebody's being killed.
Speaker 10 (10:18):
Probably, there's the way I think about it. It's putting
a cushion or some other device over the end of
the barrel.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Did your dad ever show you any weapons in the house?
Speaker 5 (10:28):
Oh, show me any weapons. We used to go rabbit shooting,
fox shooting, you know, so, Yeah, I saw rifles and
bullets and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Crackshot.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
If Lynn did murder Stephen, why would he have murdered him?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Well?
Speaker 9 (10:47):
What better way do you back at the family who
were helping Andrea to get away from him, then to
kill the only son, and Stephen was the first one
who approached him to try and get the child of him.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Four months after Stephen died, there was a judge murdered
in Wallara.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
That's right, Judge Opas shot at point blank range at
his front door while his children are having dinner.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Justice David Opus was married to Kristin. They had two children,
Joshua and Persia, who were then eight and six. She
and David had been married for ten years.
Speaker 11 (11:37):
He was absolutely delightful. He had the most beautiful sense
of humor. He was such a loving, loving father for
the children.
Speaker 12 (11:48):
Arrot.
Speaker 11 (11:49):
He was a lovely boyfriend and then husband, and he
was just full of life.
Speaker 6 (11:58):
Did you have any reasons to be angry at Judge opis?
Speaker 1 (12:03):
No, I don't think so.
Speaker 6 (12:05):
Did he preside over the early part of your divorce?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I did. Yes. One month after Justice David Opus had
briefly taken away Lynn Warwick's access to his daughter for
defying court orders, someone came to the judge's front door.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
The doorbell rang.
Speaker 7 (12:28):
Josh said to David.
Speaker 11 (12:30):
There's the door.
Speaker 13 (12:31):
Ready, eat your tea.
Speaker 11 (12:33):
He left the room, went out shut the front door.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
An alarm was going off in the street, muffling what
happened next.
Speaker 11 (12:44):
We waited and waited, and I said to the children,
that is a long time.
Speaker 14 (12:49):
I think I'll go out and see what's what what's
going on?
Speaker 11 (12:53):
I went out open the front door, and lying on
the ground was David.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Justus Opus was shot with a twenty two caliber long rifle.
When you heard that Judge Opus had been murdered.
Speaker 7 (13:08):
What did you think he's had involvement in it?
Speaker 1 (13:16):
A judge murdered on his doorstep in front of his family.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Never before in Australian history have sitting judges burned the
target of lowful force in this country. Never before. That
shows you the makeup of this person.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
The murder happened at seven ten pm, thirty three year
old len Warwick had finished his firefighting shift at least
seventy minutes earlier. There is no physical evidence linking len
Warwick to this crime scene, no blood, no fingerprints, no DNA.
(13:56):
But minutes after the Opus murder there is an eyewitness
a hunt of a man running away from the scene
carrying a long canvas bag with white handles. Under hypnosis,
the witness described a man about five foot ten in height,
twenty five to thirty years old, of solid build, with
(14:17):
dark hair and a medium complexion. Len Warwick refused a
police request to appear in a police lineup before any witness.
Andrea and len Warwick had a very significant conversation in
May of nineteen eighty, which she later detailed in evidence
(14:40):
to the Coroner's Court. They were both appearing here before
Justice Opus at what was then the Paramatta Family Court.
During the luncheon adjournment, Warwick allegedly told Andrea she wouldn't
have to worry about Justice Opus because he won't be
(15:00):
much longer. She said, why is he going on holidays?
Warwick allegedly replied, no, he just won't be there at all.
Five weeks later, Justice Opus was dead.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Now that's pretty compelling evidence that he intended to kill
the judge.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Did you shoot him? No? Did you have any knowledge
of them?
Speaker 15 (15:24):
All?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Had no idea that might happen to him.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
No.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Here at the fire station where Lynn Warwick worked, police
did a search and in a locker used by Warwick
they found news articles detailing the murder of Justice Opus.
They also searched his home, where they found a number
of firearms, none of them the murder weapon. Do you
feel that the police at this stage were aggressively pursuing
(15:53):
Lin for the murder of Judge Opis and the murder
of Stephen Yes?
Speaker 7 (15:57):
Yes, yes he was number one.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
So he was their number one prime suspect.
Speaker 7 (16:02):
Main number one suspect.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
We suspected it was Lynn Warwick from the beginning years.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
He knew that you knew it was him. Yes, and
even when he knew you were on his tail, he
still thought he could get away with it, didn't he?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Oh, absolutely, yes, He's a very clever man.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
After Justice David Opus was murdered, Justice Richard g a
father of two, took over his family court Caseload Allison,
his daughter, was twelve and scarce.
Speaker 14 (16:39):
Well, I knew that Justice Opus had been shot dad,
and Dad said, they've offered me the job to replace him.
And I just had this well, I don't know, I
call it sixth cents that something was going to happen
to us.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
March nineteen eighty four, Allison's mum was ill in hospital. Allison,
her dad, and her fifteen year old brother Stephen were
asleep at home.
Speaker 14 (17:11):
I just had a really loud clap of thunder, the
ladest I'd ever heard. And then I turned into my
room and I just went into shock. Just saw a
debris or cover in my room. My drawers had fallen in,
everything had just crashed into the center of my room,
and it was just like I'd broken up in a
(17:32):
movie or a nightmare. I went into the hallway once
I climbed over my furniture and I just saw the
hallway wasn't there anymore, It was just fully carved in.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Are you thinking about your father? At the stage, I did.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Hope that Dad was okay.
Speaker 14 (17:50):
Stephen said, well, look, we'll find him once we get
out of the house. So we went through his window.
We were around the back of the house and we
met Dad on the back deck. He was covered in debris,
dust over his whole body. Looked like a ghost, except
that he had blood pouring down his legs from his thighs.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
He'd been cut in his legs.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Yes, yes, with glass.
Speaker 14 (18:13):
There was a beam that fell over my mom's side
of the bed, which narrowly missed him.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Tell me what you thought as soon as you saw
the front of your house?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
I just cried. It just felt really sad.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Just looks like a war.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Zone in suburban Sydney.
Speaker 6 (18:33):
Had Judge g ordered you to hand over your daughter
to your former wife during the divorce?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Oh not ty sure, Terry.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Justice G had previously issued orders for the sale of
Lenn Warwick's home after his divorce. He restricted access to
his daughter and even issued an arrest warrant when he
failed to return Trudy after an access visit. When you
heard about that bomb, what did you think?
Speaker 7 (19:08):
I felt really.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Sick?
Speaker 7 (19:13):
Had another person been hurt a week before that?
Speaker 8 (19:17):
We were appeared in that court in front of him.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
This was an attack on the administration of justice in Australia.
Judges would make a ruling against him, and he responded
with louthal thought.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Sunday night the following month, the Family Court at Paramatta
is blown up. All of Warwick's proceedings were heard here.
Miraculously no one dies.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
The bomb of the Paramatta Court was set the night
before he was due to appear. He didn't want to
appear there the next time day and he didn't. The bomb
went off.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
The court was destroyed, but the bombing doesn't stop. Three
months later, Justice Ray Watson, who's taken over from Justice
g is about to leave his Greenwich home for wood.
(20:25):
His wife Pearl is killed instantly.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Pearl Watson's bomb was at the front door. As soon
as she opened that door an inch, the bomb went
off and blew her through the back wall.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Justice Watson survives. Their front door had been booby trapped.
The bomb exploded at eight point fifteen am. It contained
several kilos of jellyg Knight. Len Warwick's father was an
expert in explosives and almost certainly passed the knowledge bomb
(21:01):
to his son, So there's no doubt in your mind
he knew how to make a bomb.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
When you heard that the wife of a judge had
been murdered, what was your reaction?
Speaker 7 (21:17):
Chopped her?
Speaker 8 (21:23):
Another person has been hurt, another view is destroyed.
Speaker 13 (21:35):
I can't it over.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 9 (21:44):
I'm sorry, Darling, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Justice Watson left hospital to attend his wife's funeral in March.
He'd made orders restricting len Warick's access to his daughter.
The police have said that it's a mathematical improbability that
the same person was the common link in so many
explosions and murders.
Speaker 7 (22:16):
Every time we appeared in each in front of.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Each judge, the only thing that connected all of those
crimes was len Warick.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Yes, that's true. I believe that he is the manifestation
of pure evil.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
After Pearl Watson's death, family court judges Bob Hawke and
New South Wales Premier nevill Ran offered half a million
dollar reward.
Speaker 15 (22:44):
We don't intend to stand idly by and tolerate these
sorts of attacks not merely on individuals, but on the
very basis of the system and it operates in this community.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
A joint federal State police task force was also established.
All eyes were now focused on the prime suspect.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Where federal surveileance officers and state surveillance officers were used
up virtually every surveillance officer in New South Wales in Australia.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
But no matter how hard they tried, the police couldn't
catch him in the act. Warwick thought he was invincible.
In nineteen eighty five, another bomb was found under the
bonnet of a car outside a house here in Northmead,
near Para Matta. The intended victim had recently moved from
(23:42):
the address, but was still listed in the phone book.
The significance of it was that the car was outside
the home of what used to be the house of
your then family Court solicitor mister Watts.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Was placed in that car. This is while our task
force was still going.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
What of mister What say to you?
Speaker 8 (24:05):
At the time, I've got a phone call and he
said I won't be able to.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Act on your behalf And that was basically.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
He was saying he was too front for his own
safety to act for you any longer.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
And my knowledge of that, No, Jerry, what sort of
a person is this person?
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Is he mad?
Speaker 3 (24:39):
He's absolutely mad? He's a psychopath.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
But for many years len Warwick presented as a harmless
retiree living with his new wife in southwest Sydney. In
nineteen eighty five, his former wife, Andrea was living in fear.
On the ninth of February, then came to her home
and bashed her. That night, a bomb was planted in
(25:09):
her lawyer's car. Andrea's sister, Judy, was also threatened.
Speaker 7 (25:18):
Phone calls did you kill her and her children?
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Who was making those phone calls?
Speaker 9 (25:22):
Len Police said that it was a good idea for
me to get.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Out of Sydney because I was probably next.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
On the list. Judy belonged to a Jehovah's Witness congregation
near where len Warwick lived. She asked church members to
help move her, Andrea and Andrea's daughter to a secret
location hundreds of kilometers away. Greg Hahn drove the removal van.
(25:50):
Do you remember when you helped move Andrea's possessions? Yes,
you came to her house, she opened the door. Do
you remember anything about her features that day, black eye.
It looked like she'd had some violence. Did she say,
who'd done that too?
Speaker 8 (26:06):
Is?
Speaker 1 (26:06):
She said it was Linda had done this her words.
Speaker 12 (26:12):
What I remember about that Sunday morning, it was spectacular,
was one of those mornings in Sydney in winter, you
know where the sky is blue, blue, blue, not a cloud.
Speaker 7 (26:26):
The gum trees look fabulous.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Also with Sue and Peter Schultz in the Jehovah's witness
hall that day were Graham and Joy Wakes and two
of their three daughters. Joy had been married to Graham
for over fifteen years.
Speaker 16 (26:45):
He was always calm and loving, quiet man, but if
we could be.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Lots of fun.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Was he a good father?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
He was an excellent dad.
Speaker 12 (26:57):
People.
Speaker 6 (26:57):
This week we're reading from John six of sixty eight.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
There were one hundred and twenty five people in the
church that including twenty five children.
Speaker 13 (27:07):
Therefore, Jesus said to the twelve, you do not want
to go also, do you?
Speaker 16 (27:13):
It was an older building, so it was in the
middle of July, so it was quite cold, and we
were holding hands and I thought, oh, his hand would
be really cold. So we had a small rug over
a knee and I pulled it up over our hands,
and he.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Knew, of course why I was doing it.
Speaker 16 (27:29):
To warm his hand, and he turned to me and whispered,
I love you.
Speaker 7 (27:34):
And that was the last thing I remember, and we
have believed.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Could you remember it being?
Speaker 9 (27:47):
No?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Just went years, just went numb.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
And remember flash?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, flash heat. I don't remember heat.
Speaker 17 (27:57):
No, just a lot of debris and just bits of
little fine bits of wood falling.
Speaker 13 (28:04):
After the bomb, it was dead, silent, there was no noise.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
The air started to thin out. It virtually blew half
the Kingdom hall away.
Speaker 12 (28:15):
I thought, I'm having a nightmare. It must be a nightmare.
So I started to call out for Peter, because I
thought of if Peter would just wake me up, everything
will be fine.
Speaker 13 (28:23):
And then she started calling out in a sort of
a muffled way, Peter, Peter. Her upper lip was cut
right across and was hanging down near her chin, her eyes,
her whole face, everything was swelling up so quickly, so
I tried to tend to her. Just to the side
(28:48):
of Sue was one of our friends, a woman, and
she was calling out for her husband who was killed.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
That's great, that's great. Graham Wikes dies instantly, Joy Wikes
and Sue Schultz suffer terrible injuries. Dozens more are badly hurt.
Fourteen year old Elaine Whites is carried to an ambulance.
(29:20):
Were you looking for your mum and dad at that day?
Speaker 17 (29:23):
I knew where they were towards my left, and so
I did look around that as they were carrying me
out then, and I did see a blanket sort of
put out to cover obviously, which I realized later was
my dad's body.
Speaker 18 (29:39):
And I heard one of the oldest in our correiations.
So yeah, her father, Grahams died. I prayed to God
and said, if that was the best thing, because he
might have suffered and been in a lot of pain,
that might have been the best thing.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
I understand.
Speaker 15 (30:00):
In two weeks time, August, you were about to celebrate
your sixteenth anniversary.
Speaker 7 (30:05):
That r Yes, he.
Speaker 16 (30:08):
Was a fine, fine man, and he's missed out on
life because somebody done a very bad thing.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
It was obvious that he said it there with deliberate
intent to kill probably the whole congregation, because the congregation
of that church assisted Leonard Warwick's wife to take away
the daughter and move them up the north coast to
get away from Leonard Warwick.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
The bomb was triggered by an alarm clock. The same
explosives were used in the attempted car bombing of Andrea's
lawyer five months earlier. The night before, there had been
upbreak in at the church.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
So I believe it was Areki because he was looking
for somewhere to place his bomb. On that day, Leonard
Warwick broke a plane of glass on a side window
of the church. He reached in through that broken glass,
and there was a window winder and he wound the
window out so that he could gain access to the church.
(31:17):
In so doing he lacerated part of his body, and
upon entering the church in the dark, he bled everywhere.
It's important for people to understand that back in the
nineteen eighties DNA evidence did not exist. We knew that
that blood was a positive, but a large proportion of
(31:40):
the society has I think it's thirty eight percent have
a positive blood. So it wasn't sufficient to charge you.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
It's just four minutes drive from Lynn Warick's then house
in Casula to hear it the Jehovah's Witness Hall.
Speaker 6 (32:01):
The bombing of the Jehovah's Witness Hall, the same church,
the same congregation which offered your white sanctuary. A lot
of coincidences, isn't it connecting with you?
Speaker 9 (32:10):
Well, I now know about the activities of the Jehovah's
Witnesses in relation to the hiding of my daughter.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I didn't know that at the time.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
He'd been asking people in the congregation where you and
Andrea and Trudy were, hadn't he?
Speaker 9 (32:26):
Yes, he did approach people in that congregation, and friends
sort of contacted me and said that he's been making
phone calls ask him where we are.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
So you're saying that at the time of the church bombing,
you didn't know of your wife's involvement with the Jehovah's
witness You knew nothing about it.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Now, Nine days after the deadly explosion, federal police went
to Warwick's home with a search warrant. Used to be
interviewed and refused to give a blood sample. The police
discovered three handwritten pages containing the phone numbers of prominent
(33:11):
Jehovah's Witness members. After the bombing of the church hall,
Andrea's life was in turmoil. In hiding and scared, she
took the heartbreaking decision to hand her seven year old
daughter Trudy back to Len. So you gave Len Warwick
(33:32):
full time custody of Trudy at that point? Yes, how
was that decision?
Speaker 8 (33:39):
I didn't want to do it, but I thought, what,
maybe you'll leave everybody alone, leave leave us in peace.
Maybe he might change with her and be appreciated to
have his daughter.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
With it with him.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Interesting then, isn't it that, ever since Trudy was given
back to Len full time, everything stopped, everything stopped, everything
stopped
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