Notorious child sex predator Gavin Schuster dies in prison from liver cancer

One of South Australia’s most notorious paedophiles has died in prison, just two years after he made a final bid for release into the community.

Court sketch of Gavin Schuster. Artist Tim Ide

Gavin Shaun Schuster, one of South Australia’s most notorious paedophiles, has died in prison.

The serial child predator, one of several targets of special legislation aimed at keeping recidivist sex offenders behind bars, has died of liver cancer.

Schuster, 43, who offended since the age of 12 and had been in jail for the past 20 years, was diagnosed with advanced cancer just weeks before his death last month.

Psychologists and the Parole Board repeatedly said Schuster would likely reoffend if released. He made his last Supreme Court bid for release from prison on license in late 2018.

However, he withdrew it when Chief Justice Chris Kourakis ruled he would have to give evidence to prove he had been rehabilitated to satisfy new provisions in the Sentencing Act.

Schuster had previously secured release on license in 2016, despite now-retired Supreme Court Justice John Sulan conceding he would always be at risk of reoffending and “nothing is perfect in this world.’’

The decision to release him sparked community outrage with residents in the Kilburn area, where Schuster was to be housed in an Anglicare facility, calling on the government to stop his release, fearing their children would be at risk.

The leader of one protest group, Jodi Daniels, who lives a few hundred metres from the Anglicare facility, said she was “relieved he would no longer be a threat to any child.’’

“A family member contacted us and explained the situation. It was a feeling of relief,’’ he said.

“They were relieved, too, they have not acknowledged him as family for a while.’’

Jodi Daniels, a concerned mother who petitioned against the release of Gavin Schuster into the Kilburn area. Photo Greg Higgs

Ms Daniels said even though it had been several years since his near-release to her suburb, she still feared he would apply again.

“I was still checking court listings and I Googled his name at least once a month to see if he had anything coming up. It has been an ongoing thing,” she said.

Ms Daniels said Schuster’s criminal history was clear evidence he was likely to reoffend.

“No deterrent worked for him. Not the medication, not the jail sentences, he was determined to keep offending. He was always going to be who he was, he would always be a risk to the community,’’ she said.

Schuster was indefinitely detained as an uncontrollable sex offender in 2000. He was released in 2008, but just two months later reoffended and was taken back into custody.

That was the second time he had reoffended shortly after being released from prison. On the first occasion he had been free for just two months when he walked into a primary school and sexually assaulted a six-year-old girl in a toilet.

He had just served a five-year jail sentence for breaking into a Davoren Park home and sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl.

Schuster’s 2016 release sparked a Supreme Court appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions, with prosecutors telling the court an “unreasonable’’ and “plainly unjust’’ emphasis had been placed on Schuster’s rehabilitation instead of public safety.

Originally published as Notorious child sex predator Gavin Schuster dies in prison from liver cancer