REVEALED: The bewildering sentencing laws that mean serial paedophile and Samantha Knight's killer Michael Guider will be released TODAY
- Michael Guider is preparing to be released from jail after serving 17 years
- He killed schoolgirl Samantha Knight and molested scores of children
- The 68-year-old was sentenced to 86 years and three months in prison
- Guider could have died in prison if he served another 63 years behind bars
A serial paedophile and child killer who will likely walk free from prison on Thursday could have died in jail if he served his sentences one after the other instead of concurrently.
Michael Guider is preparing to be released from Sydney's Long Bay prison complex after his sentence for killing nine-year-old schoolgirl Samantha Knight expired.
The now 68-year-old pleaded guilty in 2002 to the manslaughter of the child, who disappeared from Bondi on August 19, 1986. Her body has never been found.
He also molested scores of young boys and girls aged between two and 16 in 1980s and the 1990s.
Michael Guider (pictured) is preparing to be released from New South Wales' Long Bay prison complex after serving 17 years behind bars killing nine-year-old schoolgirl Samantha Knight.
Guider kidnapped Samantha (pictured) from near her Bondi home on August 9, 1886, and claimed she accidentally died of a drug overdose. Her body has never been found
He was convicted of more than 60 sex crimes against prepubescent children, 15 years before he was charged with the schoolgirls' manslaughter.
He faced New South Wales District Court in September 1996 for offences against nine girls and two boys between January 1980 and January 1996.
For those offences, Guider's individual sentences totalled over 33 years, but a judge ordered them to be served concurrently with the longest term of 16 years.
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Guider fronted the court again in February 2000 for charges relating to two other girls, for which his sentences totalled 35 years and six months.
Judge John O'Reilly ordered he served the sentences at the same time as the earlier offences.
He pleaded guilty for the 1986 manslaughter of Samantha Knight on June 7, 2002 and was sentenced to a maximum of 17 years in jail.
In total, Guider was sentenced to 86 years and three months behind bars, but served just 23 years.
He pleaded guilty for the 1986 manslaughter of Samantha Knight (pictured) on June 7, 2002 and was sentenced to a maximum of 17 years in jail
Guider (pictured) has been convicted of more than 60 sex crimes against prepubescent children, 15 years before he was charged with the schoolgirls' manslaughter
The public have pleaded for New South Wales to implement sentencing laws similar to the US, where offenders could be jailed for hundreds of years for crimes such as the ones Guider committed.
Victim advocacy groups and the Police Association of NSW have urged the courts to make criminals serve jail sentences one at a time instead of having them 'lumped together'.
Victims' advocate Howard Brown told the Daily Telegraph crimes involving several victims were served concurrently to make offenders feel like their case was less important.
Police Association of NSW president Tony King said judges need to use their power to 'hand down tougher sentences'..
'You shouldn't get discounts for the fact you have offended multiple times,' he said.
Judges in NSW must ensure 'that the overall sentence is neither too harsh nor too lenient'.
Guider will have to abide by 56 conditions including wearing an electronic monitoring device and providing a weekly schedule of his movements to Corrective Services NSW, when he is released.
Unless previously approved, he must not go near day care centres, pre-schools, schools, amusement parks, cinemas, libraries, camping grounds, playgrounds or pools.
Samantha Knight, who Guider first molested when she was living with her mother Tess, was one of perhaps scores of children aged two to 16 he assaulted in the 1980s and 1990s
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