Notorious paedophile Michael Guider who killed schoolgirl Samantha Knight has died in custody – as he takes his evil secret to the grave

Australia
By William
  • Authorities have confirmed that the prisoner died Saturday morning
  • Guider had been serving 17 years for the murder of Bondi schoolgirl Samantha Knight, 9

By Steve Williams and Stephen Gibbs for Daily Mail Australia

Published: | Updated:

The serial paedophile who kidnapped, drugged and murdered schoolgirl Samantha Knight has died in custody.

A spokesperson for the Department of Correctives NSW confirmed that Michael Guider, 73, died at Prince of Wales Hospital at about 7.25am on Saturday morning.

Daily Mail Australia has learned he has had a medical condition.

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

In 1986, Guider abducted Sydney schoolgirl Samantha Knight from her Bondi home and supplied her with drugs, later resulting in a conviction for manslaughter.

He also molested other children for two decades and has shown no remorse for Samantha’s death, which he once claimed was accidental and recently said he didn’t do.

Guider was released in 2019, but was rearrested in 2022 for violating the terms of his extended five-year supervision order.

He never said where he left the schoolgirl’s body, and it is unlikely her location will ever be revealed after his death.

Michael Guider (pictured in 2022) died in hospital while in custody at Long Bay Prison

Michael Guider kidnapped, drugged and murdered nine-year-old schoolgirl Samantha Knight in 1986. She was abducted from near her home in Bondi and her remains have never been found.

Michael Guider kidnapped, drugged and murdered nine-year-old schoolgirl Samantha Knight in 1986. She was abducted from near her home in Bondi and her remains have never been found.

For the first six months of his freedom in 2019, Guider was held in a secure facility attached to the Long Bay Prison complex, along with other inmates deemed too problematic to return to society.

But in March 2020, the despised paedophile was quietly moved out of the Nunyara Community Offender Support Programme centre in Malabar and placed in a new, permanent home.

That left some of Guider’s surviving victims angry and frustrated, who said authorities at the time refused to reveal where their tormentor was now staying.

Guider’s younger brother Tim had previously warned his brother that he would use his time in Nunyara to prepare to commit further sex crimes against pre-pubescent girls.

After his initial release, Guider refused to receive letters, phone calls or visits, including from Tim.

“His handlers have told me that he doesn’t want any contact with anyone from the outside world,” Tim said in 2019.

“He’s actually trying to keep his secrets. He doesn’t want anyone to know where he is or what he’s doing.”

Tim predicted that Guider would have changed his appearance before leaving Nunyara, including getting rid of the long gray beard he grew in 2019.

Samantha’s body has never been found, and Guider has shown no remorse for her killing. He once claimed it was an accident, but recently said he did not commit it.

Guider was previously convicted of sexually abusing 13 children between 1980 and 1996. Police know of other victims who are still too traumatized to come forward.

His brother believed that Michael would find a way to return to his old ways once he was back in the community.

More to come.

Michael Guider abused children for years before and after he murdered Bondi schoolgirl Samantha Knight

The disappearance of Samantha Knight in 1986 near her mother’s home in Bondi, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, remained a mystery for 15 years.

Michael Guider has never publicly expressed remorse for the schoolgirl’s murder and her body has never been found.

She was one of dozens of children, ages two to sixteen, whom Guider abused for years. His usual method of crime was to drug and then abuse prepubescent girls.

Guider first abused Samantha when she lived with her mother Tess in Manly in 1984 and 1985.

On August 19, 1986, he abducted Samantha after school from near her home in Imperial Avenue, Bondi.

The honey-blonde, green-eyed girl had been spotted walking the streets in her uniform that afternoon. Within days, Sydney was covered in ‘Find our Sam’ posters describing her as intelligent, outgoing and articulate.

Guider later claimed that he had given Samantha the sleeping pill Normison and that she had died of an overdose in his living room while he went to the store.

He has since claimed that he had nothing to do with her death.

Many of Guider’s victims were the daughters of mothers he had befriended and sexually abused while babysitting.

Guider played a ‘game’ with a number of victims, called statues, in which he ordered them to stand still while he exposed himself and touched their genitals.

He took thousands of photos of the children he raped while they were unconscious. Some of his victims have not been identified.

In 1996, Guider was sentenced to a minimum of ten years and six months in prison for 60 crimes committed against 11 children between 1980 and 1986.

Four years later, he was again convicted of child sex offences, but his release date was only extended by six months.

While in captivity, he was linked to the disappearance of Samantha Knight.

Guider was charged with Samantha’s murder in February 2001, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter based on incriminating evidence, including a confession to his brother Tim.

He was sentenced to 17 years in prison, 12 of which without the possibility of parole, starting in June 2002. The maximum sentence expired last year.

Attempts to hold Guider beyond his original sentence failed. He was released on an extended supervision order that will last five years.

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