The attacks are considered to have begun on 22 February 1980, when Stephen Blanchard was shot dead in his home.
[1] His body was found six days later on the opposite side of Sydney in Cowan Creek on the Hawkesbury River.
[4] On 6 March 1984, judge Richard Gee, who had taken on Opas' cases after his death, was injured by a bomb at his Belrose home.
[2] Then, on 21 July 1985,[6] Graham Wykes, a Jehovah's Witness minister was killed and another 13 people injured when their Casula Kingdom Hall was bombed.
[8] Waller recorded an open verdict, expressing frustration and disappointment that insufficient evidence had been found to charge the main suspect who had been connected in some way to all of the victims.
[4] On 29 July 2015, 68-year-old Leonard John Warwick, the brother-in-law of the first victim Stephen Blanchard, was arrested at Campbelltown, New South Wales.
[4] Warwick pleaded not guilty to all charges on 2 March 2017, and the judge, Justice Garling, set a trial date of February 2018.
"[17] On 23 July 2020, Warwick was found guilty of all offences for which he was charged, except for the shooting of his brother-in-law Stephen Blanchard.
During sentencing proceedings, Supreme Court Justice Peter Garling said that Warwick's crimes "cannot be viewed as anything other than an attack on the very foundations of Australian democracy".