Samantha Knight’s killer never applied for parole so now he could walk free

The serial paedophile who drugged, molested and killed nine-year-old Samantha Knight has never applied for parole during his 17-year jail term, meaning he could walk free — with no restrictions — in June.

• Cop who tracked down Samantha’s killer speaks out
• A-G’s fight to keep Guider behind bars

Serial paedophile Michael Guider has never applied for parole in the 18 years he has been jailed for killing schoolgirl Samantha Knight, meaning he can walk free without any release conditions in June.

The Saturday Telegraph can reveal the calculating former gardener, 69, has not entered submissions to the parole board requesting early release for drugging, molesting and killing the nine-year-old from Bondi in 1986. He was sentenced in 2002 to a maximum of 17 years in prison for the crime.

Michael Anthony Guider after he was sentenced in 2002.

Although he first became eligible to apply through the Parole Authority in June 2014 he did not officially do so and was refused for consideration. He was instead advised to apply again in 2015, 2016 and 2017 — he chose not to each time.

In a chilling insight into the child abuser’s mind, Detective Chief Inspector Darren Sly, who helped lock up the schoolgirl’s killing in 2002, said: “As far as I’m aware, he’s never appeared in person or ever entered any submissions, he’s always said he wants to serve his sentence in full so he can walk free without any restrictions placed on him.”

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Samantha’s mother Tess said the pain of her daughter’s mysterious death has never left her, ever since she vanished from her beachside unit after school on August 19, 1986.

“It never goes away, there are birthdays, anniversaries, reminders … you never forget,” she said from her home in Rozelle.

“Her body has never been found, until it is, how can we move on?”

Samantha Knight was just nine years old when she was killed by Guider.

Guider’s maximum sentence expires on June 6, when he will be set free from Long Bay Correctional Complex, unless the NSW government wins a court ­action to keep him inside. Attorney-General Mark Speakman has moved to stop the release by launching court action that would keep the serial child sex offender ­behind bars for another year.

Last Friday Speakman filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking a 12-month continuing detention order against Guider, as well as an additional five-year extended supervision order.

That second order would have “stringent conditions controlling where the offender lives, where he can go and who he can associate with”, Mr Speakman has said.

Guider has never publicly expressed any remorse for killing the blonde, green-eyed girl, aged 9, which he claimed was accidental when he gave her a second dose of the prescription drug Normison in Coca-Cola.

He was serving a 16-year sentence imposed in 1996 for 60 sex offences against 11 children when police realised he was responsible for one of Australia’s most high-profile unsolved crimes.

“I’ve looked him in the eye on several occasions and asked him where the body is but each time he says: ‘I don’t know’,” Insp Sly said.

“Until he tells us where it is, this investigation isn’t over.”

Chantelle Hamilton was also a victim of Guider. Her evidence played a crucial role in putting him behind bars. Picture: Brad Fleet

Mother-of-two Chantelle Hamilton was just six years old when Guider drugged her at the home of a friend where he was babysitting in Manly, seven years after he targeted Samantha.
Her evidence played a crucial role in putting Guider behind bars.

“Guider’s manipulative and cunning, he’ll fool anyone, he even tricked my mother, who was acutely aware of the dangers of child molesters,” she told The Telegraph from her home in Adelaide.

“Police found pictures of what he did to me in his scrapbook. I was drugged. I remember parts of it, like a horror movie in slow motion.

“Guider has never showed any public remorse, he’s a disgusting human being, a monster, and I don’t want him to ever hurt another child again … Samantha’s mother Tess said she wanted Guider to remain incarcerated forever.

“I want that man to stay in jail. Who wouldn’t? He’s one of NSW’s most dangerous criminals.”

HER DEATH AFFECTED US FOREVER

For 15 years classmates clung onto the hope that Samantha Knight who vanished mysteriously after school, would one day return to her unit in Bondi.

Natalie Churnin was in the same year as the nine-year-old at Bronte Public School and says Samantha’s kidnapping and death had a lasting impact on her Year Four group.

“There weren’t many girls in our year, it was a small school, we knew she hadn’t run away, what nine-year-old would?” said Churnin, now 42, and married with two children.

“I remember Tess (Knight) calling my mother frantically that night, asking if Sam was at ours playing. She called again later, this time more scared, asking if she had turned up.

Natalie Churnin and Zoe Sweeney, who were school friends of Samantha Knight. Picture: Richard Dobson

“I later went travelling and would imagine bumping into her living a secret life.

“It’s affected me forever, I don’t trust strangers around my kids, they can play outside but they cannot walk to school. It changed us all in very different ways.”

Ms Churnin has kept in contact with Tess Knight and spoke to The Saturday Telegraph as a change.org petition calling for Michael Guider to remain in jail when his maximum 17-year sentence expires on June 6, gathered momentum.

Former schoolmate Zoe Sweeney said she had become highly protective of her children, aged three, six and eight.

“I don’t let them out of my sight and am suspicious of strangers, even though Guider was not a stranger,” said the 42-year-old from Enmore.

“None of my kids will be going to the corner shop, or anywhere alone for that matter, that’s for sure.

“I remember looking with my mum in Bronte for Sam, we never found her but the searches carried on for weeks.

“We never thought anything sinister had happened. It’s changed the way we look after our kids, it was horrible.”