Bomb judge ‘satisfactory’

Press, 7 March 1984, Page 4

Bomb judge ‘satisfactory’

NZPA-AAP Sydney Mr Justice Gee, the Australian Family Court Judge whose home was bombed early yesterday morning, underwent surgery in Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital last night. A hospital spokeswoman

said Mr Justice Gee, aged 50, was in a satisfactory condition suffering from bruising and cuts. The surgery was to remove shrapnel from both legs.

His room was under 24hour police guard, said the spokeswoman. The Judge had requested that as little information as possible be released, on security grounds, she said. He was expected to remain in Royal North Shore Hospital for the next four or five days.

The explosion flattened the brick veneer and ironroofed house at 1.45 a.m. Mr Justice Gee and his

two children, Stephen, aged 15, and Alison, aged 12, were asleep in the house at the time of the blast. Although the worst damage occurred on the side of the house where the bedrooms were, the children were not hurt.

They stayed with friends under police guard, overnight. A girl, aged 11, sleeping in a neighbouring house, was injured by flying glass. She was treated at a hospital and discharged. Mr Justice Gee’s wife, Helen, who has been in hospital for several months with a severe illness, was

told of the attack by a friend several hours later. The blast is the latest incident in a series of threats and attacks on Family Court judges which began with the murder of Mr Justice Opas outside his home in the Sydney suburb of Woolahra, in June, 1980.

That murder remains unsolved in spite of a $lOO,OOO reward. It has not been established if there is a link between yesterday’s bombing and that killing. Mr Justice Gee was the replacement for Mr Justice Opas at the Parramatta Family Court.