No grounds to appeal Michael Guider walking from jail, A-G says

The prospect of stopping the release today of the state’s most notorious paedophile and child killer has been quashed.

Michael Guider killed nine-year-old Sydney girl Samantha Knight — Photo Supplied Copyright Unknown

The prospect of stopping the release from jail of the state’s most notorious paedophile and child killer — Michael Guider — has been quashed following legal advice to the NSW government.

The state’s Attorney-General Mark Speakman was told there were no grounds to appeal a decision by the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday to allow Guider to walk free on Thursday, three months after his 17-year sentence expired for the manslaughter of nine-year-old Samantha Knight.

“This evening I received the advice of Crown Advocate Dr David Kell SC and Ms Joanna Davidson on the prospects of a successful appeal from yesterday’s decision by the Supreme Court, to refuse my application for a 12 month Continuing Detention Order (COD) against Michael Anthony Guider,” Mr Speakman said in a statement on Wednesday night.

“Having considered that advice, I have reached the regretful conclusion that such an appeal would fail.”

Guider’s release from jail after 23 years follows a protracted legal challenge by Mr Speakman to keep him behind bars after his sentence expired in June.

Guider is scheduled to walk 150m from the main Long Bay Correctional Complex on Thursday to his new “halfway” house accommodation, attached to the jail, the Nunyara Community Centre.

Speaking on Thursday morning, Mr Speakman said one of the problems with the case was the Crown was unable to prove murder.

“The sort of penalty you would see on a murder case just wasn’t available here on the plea. Historically, child sex offences have been punished too lightly,” he said.

“I’m sorry we have failed to get a continual detention order but I can guarantee that community safety is the number one priority. This offender will not enjoy freedom in the same way that an ordinary citizen will.”

In a judgment by NSW Supreme Court judge Richard Button on Tuesday, he said keeping Guider in jail for another 12 months was an exercise in “futility” given that he would inevitably be released into the community.

Guider, 68, killed Samantha Knight after he snatched her off a street in Sydney’s Bondi Beach in August 1986 while she was walking to a shop to buy pencils.

By the time he was ­arrested for Samantha’s killing in 2001 Guider was already in jail for sex offences against 13 young boys and girls, committed between 1980 and 1996.

Guider had taken photos of his victims, drugging some of them with soft drinks spiked with Temazepam before raping them and taking photos as they slept.

It was Guider’s confession to a cellmate that ultimately led to his conviction for manslaughter in 2002 after he claimed he had accidentally killed Samantha after giving her an extra dose of sleeping pills in a soft drink after she started to wake up while he was sexually assaulting her.

He has always refused to give any details of what he did with Samantha’s body. But he now insists he didn’t kill Samantha and says he will deny it “to my dying day”.

Justice Button conceded he was “not completely convinced” by Guider’s claim his sexual attraction to children had disappeared during his two decades in jail. The effectiveness of the anti-libidinal drugs, he said, was also “unclear” given that Guider’s sexual disorder was “complex’ and not solely driven by sexual urges.

His decision to release Guider, he said, had been guided by the unanimous assessment of three psychiatrists and psychologists who had agreed that while there would always remain was a risk of Guider reoffending, that risk could be managed as long as “a very stringent and lengthy regime of supervision and control” was imposed.

Even so, he said, it was “out of the question” to release him without imposing a strict five-year extended supervision order (ESO) with 56 conditions.

These include a mandatory “anti-libidinal” drug regime to reduce Guider’s sex drive. He will also be forbidden to change his name or his appearance.

“These conditions mean this offender does not ‘walk free’ in the same way law-abiding citizens walk free,” Mr Speakman said. “From tomorrow and for at least the next five years, the offender will be monitored electronically 24/7. He will be told where to live, who he can see and where he can and cannot go; will have his internet usage monitored; and must abide by a night-time curfew.”

Any breach of the conditions, he said, would see Guider, “one of the most despicable individuals to come before our justice system”, returned to jail.

“My expectation is that Guider will be subject to these supervision orders for the rest of his life.”

“Whatever disappointment I may feel at yesterday’s outcome is nothing compared with the distress and concern of his many victims and their families.”

Samantha Knight’s mother, Tess, said on Tuesday the decision to release Guider had left her “angry’ and “shaking inside.”

Lisa Giles, who was abused by “Uncle Mick” Guider between the ages of five to 11 three decades ago, said: “Hold your children close. A child molester and child killer will be released among us this week … it is not over. He will reoffend.”