NSW judge says bomb accused is penniless
The Family Court litigant accused of a string of Sydney bombings and murders in the 1980s is penniless and now without legal representation months into his trial, says the judge hearing the case.
"To proceed without legal representation would render the trial potentially unfair," Justice Peter Garling said in the NSW Supreme Court.
The judge said it didn't necessarily follow that Leonard John Warwick's application for a stay of his trial would be granted, with Justice Garling to hear further submissions from the parties on Thursday afternoon.
The 72-year-old has pleaded not guilty to four murders and 20 other offences relating to seven events which occurred between February 1980 and July 1985.
He was involved in a long-running Family Court dispute which ended in 1986 and "inextricably linked" him to the seven events and provided him with a motive, the Crown alleges.
Warwick is charged with the 1980 shooting murders of his brother-in-law Stephen Blanchard and Justice David Opas; the bombing of Justice Richard Gee's home and of the Family Court building in Parramatta in 1984; and, in the same year, the bombing of the home of Justice Ray Watson in which his wife Pearl was killed.
In 1985, he allegedly set off a bomb that ripped apart a Jehovah's Witnesses hall, killing Graham Wyke and injuring 13 people, part of the congregation offering support to his ex-wife Andrea Blanchard.
Solicitor Alan Conolly has been representing Warwick at his judge-alone trial, but due to Legal Aid funding issues is no longer acting for him.
But he did make the application on Warwick's behalf for a stay of the proceedings.
On Thursday, Justice Garling said he was satisfied Warwick was "indigent" or destitute, and now does not have legal representation for his defence at the trial.
To proceed without legal representation would render the trial potentially unfair.
The judge was satisfied Warwick had not conducted himself in an unreasonable way to bring about these circumstances.
"It does not follow any final order ought to be made to stay the proceedings or grant an adjournment," he said.
The trial was fixed to resume on March 11 and he did not propose adjourning that date.
He will hear further submissions from the parties on Thursday afternoon.
Australian Associated Press