Breakthrough in Australian 35-year-old assassination mystery
Xinhua, July 29, 2015 Adjust font size:
Police on Wednesday swooped on the home of a Sydney man and will charge him with more than 30 offenses relating to a reign of terror from 1980 to 1985 when judges, their families and others were targeted in a bombing and shooting campaign.
It has been one of Australia's most enduring mysteries which left four people dead at the hands of someone with an apparent grudge against the Family Law Court which oversaw divorces and custody issues.
Leonard Warwick, 69 and a former firefighter, was in the process of being charged on Wednesday afternoon, including four murder charges, over a string of unsolved shootings and bombings which became known as the Family Law Court murders.
"This arrest resulted from a tenacious, very persistent investigation that goes back to early 2012 but in reality goes back 30 years to the 1980s," Deputy New South Wales police Commissioner Nick Kaldas told reporters.
"The evidence that we've gathered includes significant new evidence, historic evidence that has been enhanced using technology that was probably not available 30 years ago."
The attacks, between 1980 and 1985, targeted judges of the Family Court of Australia, their families, a lawyer and members of the community, police said.
Family Court judge David Opas was shot outside his home, Judge Richard Gee was injured by a bomb at his home, and another bomb killed the wife of Judge Ray Watson.
Another victim, Stephen Blanchard, was shot and Jehovah's Witness minister Graham Wykes was killed by a bomb at a church hall.
Homicide squad Superintendent Mick Willing told reporters the bombings and murders were crimes against the legal system.
"These crimes are not only crimes against individuals, they were crimes against our society," he said.
"They impacted on the entire country."
"These crimes instilled a great deal of fear, particularly for those people who worked in and around the family law courts around that time. With today's arrest we can't forget the people who lost their lives." Endi