Leon Kenneth Bropho: Man who stabbed, bashed partner with brick in Willagee garden jailed for attempted murder

A man who tried to murder his partner by stabbing her on the front lawn of their Willagee home then bashing her with a brick in a neighbour’s backyard has been jailed for 13 years. Leon Kenneth Bropho chased Bonnie Garlett out the front door of their Jules Court house in the early hours of September 29, 2023 and thrust a knife into her neck, back, shoulder and face so hard it broke. The mother of three of his children managed to break free and bang on the doors of nearby houses, screaming for help. And when the pair wound up in the backyard of a home several doors down, Bropho used a brick to bludgeon the then 33-year-old. She was rushed to Royal Perth Hospital, where she was found to have suffered a collapsed lung as well as multiple horrific injuries. Meanwhile, police found Bropho a few streets away. Ms Garlett testified at Bropho’s Supreme Court of WA trial in September that she woke up in hospital four days later. She said the last thing she recalled was Bropho standing over her, holding a brick above his head, and she then “saw polka dots”. The attack only ended when the resident turned on a light, revealing a bloodied Bropho brandishing a screwdriver he had used to attack Ms Garlett, leaving “star” marks. “It should have been obvious to you by then that Ms Garlett was seriously injured from the first attack,” Justice Michael Gething said on Friday. The jury’s guilty verdict on the charge of attempted murder meant they found Bropho intended to kill her, and the judge agreed - saying he tried twice. Justice Gething described the stabbing, captured on CCTV, as “savage” and labelled the second onslaught “intense and brutal”. Their near decade-long relationship had been marred by domestic violence, the judge said, noting Bropho had been convicted of attacking Ms Garlett three times before that night. The first time, he pushed her to the ground, jumped on her then kicked her. The second assault — when she was pregnant — involved punching and grabbing her throat. The third conviction was for punching her and forcing her into car windows. “Your escalation of violence was completely unwarranted,” Justice Getting said. “Domestic violence is something the community just does not tolerate.” Prosecutor Elizabeth Swann said it was concerning that Bropho wrote a victim-blaming letter to the judge, saying Ms Garlett was not perfect and there were two sides to the story. “Nothing that she could have done would justify what happened to her,” Ms Swann said. Bropho, 35, started using methylamphetamine at 19, introduced by a relative, and had consumed it in the days leading up to the southern suburbs horror. He also had an entrenched history of alcohol abuse, the court was told. Defence counsel Ian Hope said his client had sworn off drugs and appreciated he had “wronged” Ms Bropho “in many ways”. “He is loathsome of himself and self-critical of the behaviour he has exhibited to Ms Garlett,” Mr Hope said. Judge Gething said Bropho taking responsibility for his offending “came at a very late stage”. He will be eligible for parole after serving 11 years. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)