Murder victim Miranda Downes' family angry her convicted killer has been released without their knowledge

SCREENWRITER Miranda Downes' naked body was found washed up on a north Queensland beach in 1985. Her convicted killer now lives free in a Brisbane hostel.

MIRANDA Downes, or Mandy to her friends and family, had the world at her feet.

She was young, beautiful, talented and a successful Sydney screenwriter who had written two Australian miniseries.

But almost 28 years to the day, her battered, naked body was found at the water's edge on the beach at Buchan Point in north Queensland.

The 35-year-old had arrived the day before on August 3, 1985, to holiday with long-time English friends.

At about 6pm, Miranda - a fitness enthusiast - decided to go for a run on the beach, promising to be back soon.

She wasn't and by dinner time, her friends raised the alarm.

During her murder investigation, police said she had been struck from behind by a vehicle before being partially strangled and sexually assaulted and thrown in the sea unconscious but still alive. The official cause of death was drowning.

Miranda's killer, Ernest Arthur Knibb - an itinerant pensioner - received a life sentence.

This year he was set free from Rockhampton's Capricornia Correctional Centre by the Queensland Parole Board despite being labelled by authorities as "high maintenance".

Now, at 72, he resides at an aged care hostel in Brisbane's east.

Ernie Knibb still maintains his innocence and claims to be a "political prisoner" who was framed by former 60 Minutes reporter Ian Leslie after his interview on the show played a crucial part in his conviction.

In 2001 he wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions claiming a DNA sample taken from him would prove he didn't kill Miranda Downes. He had also unsuccessfully appealed to the High Court.

A ministerial briefing note obtained under Right to Information laws shows that while in prison he was anti-social, remaining "isolated from others and being high maintenance at times".

"This is a consistent theme across his 26 year custodial sentence," the document, dated January 16, stated.

As part of his release, 15 conditions have been applied including a media ban, which also prohibited him profiting from his crime financially.

In the past he demanded a $2 million appearance fee after being approached by 60 Minutes for the program's 20th-year anniversary special.

His release has angered Miranda's family. Her cousin Dr Felicity Benn said authorities failed to tell the family about Knibb's release, but she was glad Mandy's father, Alan, wasn't alive to see it.

"He (Alan) went to the first appeal hearing and was very vociferous in his objection and that appeal was denied," she said.

"He would have been at the second appeal had he still been alive obviously."

Dr Benn said her uncle, who died four years ago, went to his grave angry and bitter about his daughter's death.

"It haunted him until the day he died," she said.

Dr Benn, who grew up with Miranda, said it was something you could never get over.

"She was at the cusp of a burgeoning career. She'd just found fame in her chosen field and she was just starting to establish a reputation and name for herself when it happened," Dr Benn said.

"This portrayal of Ernie Knibb as a fragile old man, I'm sorry, that just doesn't wash with me.

"A leopard doesn't change its spots. This idea he's changed and all the rest of it ... fundamentally there was no empathy, there was nothing. And I just think those people should never be released."

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