Leon Matthew Parnell pleads guilty to persistent family violence charge in Collie Magistrates Court

A South West bikie with links to the Gypsy Joker motorcycle gang has become one of the first to plead guilty to WA’s new persistent family violence charge. Leon Matthew Parnell, 44, admitted to the charge in Collie Magistrates Court last month — becoming only the fourth WA person to do so after it was introduced in the State last year under legislation reforms. The charge applies to a person who commits an act of domestic violence more than three times against the same person in less than 10 years. In the same appearance on September 22, Parnell, pictured above, also pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman in circumstances of aggravation, six counts of failing to comply with protective bail conditions, threatening to harm and four counts of breaching family violence restraining orders. The court was told the incidents occurred between 2015 and 2020 and all involved the same woman. Parnell is linked to the Kalgoorlie Gypsy Jokers chapter and has photos of his motorcycle and interactions with members of the group on social media. A photo of the front of his bike behind a barred fence posted to his Facebook page on May 2, 2019, was captioned “life behind bars” and “not the ones some c...s want me behind”. During his court appearance, defence lawyer Jodette Reynolds said Parnell had been receiving ongoing “threats” from the woman. “There was ongoing contact from the victim to Mr Parnell, but to his credit he has resisted in responding to any of those threats or messages,” Ms Reynolds said. Parnell also appeared on two charges of unlawful assault which thereby did bodily harm with circumstances of aggravation, which were dismissed by Magistrate Belinda Coleman. Parnell was previously convicted of breaching protective bail conditions on September 19, 2018, and breaching a family violence restraining order between September 16 and 17 last year. He received extended bail and home detention conditions from Ms Coleman so he could start employment as a boilermaker-welder at a local power station. Parnell will reappear in Collie Magistrates Court on November 17 to be sentenced on 14 charges.