Pedophile Michael Guider, who killed Samantha Knight, dies

The serial pedophile who killed the nine-year-old Bondi schoolgirl in 1986 has died in custody. Her body has never been found.

Michael Guider, left, who killed Samantha Knight, right, has died.

Michael Guider, the serial pedophile who killed Sydney schoolgirl Samantha Knight, has died while in custody.

A Corrective Services NSW spokesperson confirmed Guider, 73, died at Prince of Wales hospital on Saturday just before 7.30am on Saturday.

“As a matter of protocol, Corrective Services NSW and NSW Police investigate all deaths in custody regardless of the circumstances,” the spokesperson said.

Guider was convicted of the manslaughter of nine-year-old schoolgirl, who went missing in August 1986 near her Bondi home.

Samantha’s disappearance led to a high-profile police investigation, and Guider was charged with her murder years later.

Michael Anthony Guider leaving Long Bay jail after serving 17 years for the manslaughter of nine-year-old Bondi schoolgirl Samantha Knight. Picture: Toby Zerna.

Guider pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a plea deal with the prosecution that saw the charge of murder dropped, and was sentenced to 17 years’ jail.

At the time of his conviction over Samantha’s death, Guider was already serving time for multiple sex offences against more than ten other children.

Justice Button in the Supreme Court in 2019 said the sentencing judge at the time sentenced Guider on he basis that in order to commit a sexual offence against Samantha, he “adopted his well-established method of dosing her with the sedative”, before “she unexpectedly died as a result, and he thereafter secretly disposed of her body”.

Initially, he told police her body was buried in Cooper Park, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs before he moved her to a skip bin at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron club in Kirribilli.

Samantha’s body was never found.

Guider was released from Sydney’s Long Bay Prison in September 2019 on a strict five year extended supervision order comprising 56 conditions, including electronic monitoring, after a failed bid by the NSW government to keep him behind bars.

Guider was arrested again in 2022 after he reportedly breached his supervision order.