The fathers rights movement in Australia has a reputation for being particularly dangerous and violent--though all of them (the U.S. included) have histories that are similar.
The campaign to strip protective mothers of their children and deliver them to abuser/molester/rapist dads is not just a "war of ideas." It is a classic war of terror. That's one reason why they have been so successful. If judges who are sympathetic to women and children are assassinated or targeted for bombings, then the resulting fear works very well from the criminals. Even the police are apparently afraid/bought off/infiltrated enough, so they refuse to investigate.
Notice that the suspected killer fought for custody of an infant daughter, and was presumably miffed when the judges and others saw through his motives and manipulative bullsh**.
Among those killed: the mother's brother who had helped her and the judge who had (rightfully) reduced the killer's time with the baby. It appears that UNNAMED DAD was also responsible for a series of terroristic bombings aimed at judges and the family courts that killed at least one person.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigation-exposes-the-dad-accused-of-an-unsolved-crime-spree-that-killed-four-people/story-e6frg6n6-1226675335935
Investigation exposes the dad accused of an unsolved crime spree that killed four people
by:Ross Coulthart
From:The Sunday Telegraph
July 07, 201312:00AM
THE families and victims of Australia's most notorious unsolved crime spree, the 1980s Family Court murders and bombings, have spoken for the first time, demanding to know why a three-decade long police investigation has failed to bring one of the worst serial killers to justice.
An investigation by the Seven Network's Sunday Night program to air this evening reveals new evidence and witnesses the police have failed to find. Former NSW coroner Kevin Waller calls for the suspected killer - a Sydney man - to finally be brought to justice.
"There are extraordinary links between (the man) and the deaths and the explosions under consideration. Quite extraordinary," Mr Waller said.
"Whether they amount to a case, really, I'd like to see it go before a jury to make that decision. It's a failure of our criminal justice system to cope with what's happened here."
Between 1980 and 1985 in Sydney, four people were killed, dozens critically injured and permanently maimed, in a cruel five-year reign of terror that targeted judges of the Family Court of Australia, their families, a lawyer and innocent members of the public.
A coronial inquiry in 1986 heard evidence that the only common link in every one of the seven attacks was a former NSW fireman, who lives with a new family on the outskirts of Sydney's southwest.
In tonight's program, his former wife, Andrea Blanchard, and their daughter, Trudi, speak for the first time about the coronial evidence that saw him named as the prime suspect.
"Innocent people were killed over me," says Trudi. "Somebody has to be held accountable for what happened. If you commit something like these crimes you should be held accountable for it. I don't care who you are."
The man, still the prime suspect and now aged 66, is a skilled bushman and a crack shot.
In 1980 he and his now ex-wife were frequently before the Family Court fighting for custody of their infant daughter. The Coroner's Court heard in 1986 how when the wife fled to her family home in Revesby, her brother, Stephen Blanchard, became a target of her husband's anger because he had helped her recover her baby daughter from the husband's home.
On February 22, 1980, Stephen Blanchard was murdered in the family home, shot by an unknown assailant. Six days later his body was found in Cowan Creek on the Hawkesbury on the other side of Sydney.
Later that same month, Family Court judge Justice David Opas made an order that reduced the father's access to his daughter, Trudi. The Coroner's Court heard evidence he had told his then wife that Justice Opas "won't be there much longer".
Five weeks later, on June 23, 1980, Justice Opas was shot on his front doorstep in Woollahra. Police later found articles detailing the murder of Justice Opas in the man's work locker.
In tonight's program, Justice Opas' widow, Kristin Opas, speaks for the first time about what happened that night, including the horrified reaction of her then eight-year-old son Joshua.
"Joshua saw his dad and went absolutely rigid. I can still see his little face, absolutely wide-eyed and shocked," Mrs Opas recalls.
In July 1983 the judge who replaced Justice Opas hearing the custody case, Justice Richard Gee, made another order limiting the father's time with his daughter. Early the next year, on March 6, 1984, a bomb exploded at Justice Gee's Belrose home. The judge and his daughter Alison, then 12, and son Richard, then 15, narrowly escaped death. Alison Gee tells how her mother would have been killed if she had not been away in hospital and how badly the bombing still affects her and her family. "He destroyed our sense of security in life."
The following month another bomb exploded outside the front of the Parramatta Family Court where the family's cases had all been heard. Miraculously, no one was hurt. But three months later there was another bombing at the Greenwich home of the judge who had taken over from Justice Gee, Justice Ray Watson. His wife, Pearl, was killed instantly when she triggered a bomb at the front door. Following the murder, the then prime minister Bob Hawke and NSW premier Neville Wran offered a $500,000 reward - still unclaimed nearly 30 years later.
Kevin Waller's coronial inquiry heard the father was the prime suspect for all the attacks but that the police had insufficient evidence to lay charges against anyone. The father refused to comment.
Bloody campaign of fear that changed face of court system
ALL judges, not just those presiding over the often highly emotional clashes in the Family Court system, would admit privately that the 1980s spate of Family Court bombings and murders sent a fearsome chill through the legal system that still lingers today.
These unsolved attacks were a strike at the heart of the integrity of our justice system, clearly designed to intimidate judicial officers and their staff. The fact that the person responsible for these attacks on judges and innocent members of the public is still at large remains a huge blight on our criminal justice system.
It is a tough job being a judge, often isolating and unpopular. But what made it worse back then for Family Court judges was a public backlash whipped up in some sections of the popular media implying the attacks were almost justified. Back then the Family Court was a fairly new experiment in no-fault divorce and the level of hatred directed at judges by fathers groups was often intense and aggressive.
Many aggrieved fathers believed the court was unfairly awarding custody to mothers in too many cases. This angry view was unwisely promoted in the media and to this day there is still intense feeling among judges that they were unfairly vilified by a community backlash.
The original police investigation into the attacks was thorough and NSW Police will no doubt welcome any new evidence from anyone willing to claim the outstanding $500,000 reward. But one section of the community watching the stalled investigation into this appalling series of unsolved crimes with more interest than most will be the judges and magistrates who serve in all our courts. They have the right to feel confident that their decisions will be respected and that anyone who challenges our rule of law with violence should be aggressively hunted down and prosecuted - no matter how long it takes.