Samantha Knight's killer to be released from prison
The killer of Bondi schoolgirl Samantha Knight will be released from prison after a failed last-minute bid by the state to keep the notorious paedophile behind bars.
Michael Guider's maximum 17-year jail term for the manslaughter of the nine-year-old eastern suburbs girl expired in June this year but a renewable interim detention order was imposed to halt his release.
On Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Richard Button refused NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman's application to keep the 68-year-old in prison for another year, granting a five-year extended supervision order.
He is due for release by Thursday and will be the subject of a strict supervision order for the next five years.
After his release, Guider will live in a halfway house attached to a prison and be electronically monitored 24 hours a day. He will also be medically monitored and required to lodge his schedule for the upcoming week with his Corrective Services case officer.
Guider will also be banned from certain suburbs and places frequented by children, such as cinemas, and have restricted access to the internet.
"There are over 50 other stringent conditions that the state sought," Mr Speakman told reporters on Tuesday. "I would have liked to see him in jail for another 12 months, but we've been unsuccessful in that."
The state is now seeking "urgent" legal advice on the prospects of appealing Justice Richard Button's decision.
Asked if he accepted that prisoners could be rehabilitated, Mr Speakman said that "sadly" some offenders were unable to be.
In 2002, Guider pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Samantha, who disappeared in 1986. He has since said that he didn't kill her, and will deny it "til his dying day".
Samantha's body has never been found.
Guider was also jailed for sex offences against 13 young boys and girls, committed between 1980 and 1996. Guider took photos of his victims and drugged some of the children with sleeping tablets in soft drink before he assaulted them.
A forensic psychologist questioned the need to keep Guider imprisoned at a hearing in August, saying that the sex offender had completed all available treatment plans and there was no "therapeutic benefit" to it.
A packed courtroom also heard from Samantha’s mother, Tess, who asked whether her daughter had called out for her during her final moments.
"Did she wonder where I was and why I wasn't there to help her?" Ms Knight asked in the witness box.
with Angus Thompson