Paedophiles and triple murderers have been released from Australian prisons creating public outcry

Some Australia’s worst criminals have walked free from prison in recent months, sparking pleas within the community to toughen laws and keep the worst offenders behind bars indefinitely. 

A triple murderer, a serial rapist, a paedophile child killer and a man who bashed his wife to death before hurling their baby at a wall have all been released into the community in 2019 as their sentences expired.

In some cases, like that of convicted paedophile Michael Guider, the state of New South Wales worked tirelessly to extend his detention order.

Justice Richard Button on Tuesday instead imposed a five-year extended supervision order with stringent conditions on the 68-year-old.

He said he was not in a position to question whether Guider’s initial sentence was just, and could only make his decision based on the risk he believed Guider posed to the community.

Similarly, last week triple murderer Berwyn Rees walked free from Silverwater jail in Sydney’s west, despite police protesting he should spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Samantha Knight’s mother Tess (second from right) was among those who campaigned to keep Michael Guider behind bars. Their bid failed on Tuesday and Guider will be released 

In that case, the daughter of one of Rees’ victims, who was a police officer when he was shot at point blank range in 1980, described his release an indication of a broken justice system.  

‘To let out a triple murderer by saying he has been so good in jail well whoop dee doo – it is wrong,’ she said.   

Earlier in the year, serial rapist Robert Fardon and John Raymond Holschier, a man convicted of murdering his wife and beating his baby daughter, also had conditions of their release relaxed. 

In the wake of the string of high-profile releases, politicians and community leaders have voiced their concern about the message it sends to potential criminals.

Attorney-General Christian Porter said sentencing of paedophiles needed an urgent overhaul.

He introduced a new bill into parliament which would see paedophiles face mandatory minimum sentences, while repeat offenders would find it much harder to post bail if it were passed.

Of nearly 300 paedophiles convicted for Commonwealth offences last year, almost 100 walked free.

‘It simply beggars belief that 28 per cent of all offenders sentenced last year (for federal crimes) were not required to spend a single day behind bars,’ he said.

‘And when jail terms were handed out, the average length of time that offenders spent in custody was just 18 months.’

Here, Daily Mail Australia takes a closer look at some of Australia’s worst offenders and the conditions surrounding their release from prison. 

Berwyn Rees: Triple Murderer 

Berwyn Rees (pictured) struggled to make his way into the van which was waiting to escort him from the prison

Triple murderer Berwyn Rees was released on parole last Friday after he spent 39 years behind bars.

The notorious criminal walked free from Silverwater jail in Sydney’s west on Friday under some of the toughest parole conditions the state of New South Wales has ever imposed.

The now 70-year-old was convicted of murdering 26-year-old Raymond James and Christopher Greenfield, also 26, when he attempted an armed robbery at a gun shop in 1977.

The men had been ordered to lie on the floor then were executed with shots to the back of the head at point blank range.  

Pictures of Raymond’s two-year-old daughter Tracy with her grieving mother Mirjana were splashed across the front pages of newspapers after the murders.  

Rees, who had stolen 18 firearms as well as ammunition from the gun shop, went into hiding for three years after the double murder, eventually living in a caravan park at Raymond Terrace, near Newcastle.

On November 24, 1980 police responded to reports by forestry and Telecom workers of a firearm being discharged in bushland at Mount Sugarloaf, near Lake Macquarie.

Rees, then 31, had gone to the secluded spot with six handguns and ammunition to shoot at cans, as he had done about once a month for three years.

THE HORRIFIC CRIMES OF BERWYN REES

August 4, 1977: Berwyn Rees shoots dead Raymond James and Christopher Greenfield inside a gun shop at Bondi Junction in Sydney’s eastern suburbs

November 24, 1980: After three years in hiding, Rees is confronted by Sergeant Keith Haydon in bushland at Mount Sugarloaf, near Newcastle. He shoots Sergeant Haydon dead. Later that day Rees shoots Constable Alexander Pietruszka at nearby Beresfield. Constable Pietruszka survies and Rees and is arrested

April 13, 1981: Justice Colin Begg sentences Rees, 31, to three life terms for the murders of Mr James, Mr Greenfield and Sergeant Haydon and 10 years for the malicious wounding of Constable Pietruszka

September 28, 2018: The NSW State Parole Authority forms an intention to grant Rees parole at a private hearing 

February 8, 2019: The NSW State Parole Authority (SPA) adjourns a public hearing to determine whether Rees, now 69, should be released

February 21, 2019:  The SPA announces Rees will be released

When confronted by Sergeant Keith Haydon, Rees shot him three times in the body with .38 Smith & Wesson revolver he had stolen from the Bondi Junction store. 

Rees had then attempted to move Sergeant Haydon’s police vehicle but the heroic officer had removed the keys from the ignition. Rees shot the 37-year-old in the back of the head.

After executing Sergeant Haydon, Rees was confronted by Constable Alexander Pietruszka and other police who pulled him over at Beresfield, about 20km away.

He was arrested that day and has been in custody ever since.

He pleaded guilty to the three murders and malicious wounding before Justice Colin Begg, who sentenced Rees to life in prison in April 1981.

Mr Pietruszka believed Rees was still a dangerous man.

‘This man didn’t kill these three people,’ he said. ‘He executed them.

‘I believe that somewhere deep inside him, there is still evil lurking.’

He was sentenced to three life sentences for the crime spree but was granted parole earlier this month.

Rees’ laundry list of conditions will make him the most closely monitored parolee in the state and he must adhere to them until his death.

Any misstep and he will find himself back in jail, the parole board said. 

He offered a smirk as he was driven away from Silverwater jail in Sydney’s west

The now 70-year-old was convicted of murdering 26-year-old Raymond James (left) and Christopher Greenfield (right), also 26, when he attempted an armed robbery at a Bondi Junction gun shop in 1977 

Sergeant Keith Haydon, pictured on the day of his wedding to Anne, was responding to reports of gunfire in a forest when he was murdered by Berwyn Rees. Mrs Haydon attended Rees’s parole hearing in Parramatta on February 8 with the couple’s children Kathy and Peter 

Michael Guider: Paedophile and Child Killer

Michael Guider was in prison serving a sentence in relation to more than 60 charges of child sex offences against 11 children when he was charged with killing Sydney schoolgirl Samantha Knight.

He is expected to be released on Thursday after a judge rejected an application from the state of NSW to keep him behind bars.

NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman confirmed he and his team are currently trawling through the statement of facts to see if there is any way they could successfully appeal the court decision. 

‘Obviously we’re disappointed we didn’t get the continued detention order we were seeking,’ he told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

Paedophile and child killer Michael Guider is set to be freed from prison within days after a judge rejected an application to keep him behind bars. Justice Richard Button instead imposed a five-year extended supervision order with stringent conditions on the 68-year-old 

Samantha Knight, who Guider first molested when she was living with her mother Tess at Manly, was one of perhaps scores of children aged two to 16 he assaulted in the 1980s and 1990s. Many of his victims, including Samantha, were the daughters of mothers he befriended

‘Our position for the court was that he is still a danger, but we didn’t succeed in keeping him behind bars… The sort of crimes he’s committed are horrendous… unspeakable in many cases.’  

Guider pleaded guilty in 2002 to the manslaughter of nine-year-old Samantha who went missing after leaving her Bondi home on August 19, 1986. Her body has never been found. 

Justice Richard Button on Tuesday imposed a five-year extended supervision order with stringent conditions on the 68-year-old. 

Samantha’s mother Tess Knight slammed the decision. 

‘I am not disappointed, I am angry,’ Ms Knight told reporters.

‘I want to be clear, this is actually not about punishment, it’s not punitive, it’s about prevention. Would you want him living next to you?’

But Justice Button said the New South Wales Supreme Court hearing was to assess the risk Guider posed in the future, rather than imposing punishment for his prior offending.

Samantha Knight’s killer, serial paedophile Michael Guider, is pictured clutching a Kodak film packet and developed photographs in 1984, the year he began molesting Samantha. Guider drugged and assaulted his many victims then photographed them in pornographic poses

He found that a further period of incarceration would not serve any rehabilitative purpose.

While it could not be said definitively that Guider’s sexual interest in children had disappeared, the judge considered he had done all that could be done in terms of rehabilitation in a prison setting. 

The court’s decision came as a shock to victims, who say his lack of remorse alone should be enough to keep him behind bars.     

Ms Knight and several of Guider’s other victims as well as his brother Tim had pleaded for the serial child sex offender not to be released.

Ms Knight said outside court she was ‘shaking inside’ after the decision to release Guider.

‘We should all be shocked,’ she said. ‘He hasn’t demonstrated that he’s changed. 

‘So not only hasn’t he told us what he did with Samantha’s body – and there will be no body to find anymore, it’s a long time – but he hasn’t given me and my family and Samantha’s friends any details of what happened that day.’ 

Tim Guider had hoped his sibling could be coerced into revealing where Samantha was buried and confessing to further crimes against children.

Michael Guider is pictured in 2002 when he was sentenced to a maximum 17 years for Samantha Knight’s manslaughter. He was serving a 16-year sentence imposed in 1996 for 60 offences against 11 children when police realised he was responsible for kidnapping Samantha

‘This is no normal person,’ Mr Guider said. ‘He’s a monster and he’s a danger and the community don’t want him out.’  

Guider never publicly expressed any remorse for killing Sam – which he claimed was accidental – and has recently even denied any role in her death. 

Samantha was one of perhaps scores of children aged two to 16 Guider molested over many years. His usual method of offending was to drug then molest pre-pubescent boys and girls.

Many of his victims were the daughters of mothers he had befriended. He often sexually assaulted them during babysitting sessions.

Guider played a ‘game’ called statues with some victims in which he ordered them to stand still while he exposed himself and touched their genitals; he took thousands of images of the children he violated while they were drugged.

Guider pleaded guilty in 2002 to the manslaughter of nine-year-old Samantha who went missing after leaving her Bondi home on August 19, 1986. Her body has never been found

The long-haired gardener claimed some of the mothers knew what he was doing and told a psychologist at least one of them – not Samantha’s mother – did not mind.

‘She was bad,’ Guider said of the mother. ‘I was screwing her two kids and she asked me to do it to her after I’d been doing it to them.’   

Guider’s 17-year jail term has expired, but he was placed on an interim detention order which expires on Thursday.

Guider will have to live under 56 conditions including wearing electronic monitoring equipment, providing a weekly schedule of his movements to a department supervising officer (DSO) from Corrective Services NSW and never changing his name.

WHY MICHAEL GUIDER SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN RELEASED 

By Stephen Gibbs for Daily Mail Australia 

Michael Guider has not revealed where Samantha Knight is buried, continues to pose a risk to children and has never shown any remorse.

Those campaigning to keep the paedophile behind bars also believe he has not served enough time for his earlier crimes against girls and boys, some of whom have never come forward.

The man who knows Guider best – his brother Tim – tried desperately to keep him locked up. 

‘This is no normal person,’ Mr Guider said. ‘He’s a monster and he’s a danger and the community don’t want him out.’ 

Guider was already serving 16 years for child sex offences against more than a dozen victims when he pleaded guilty to Samantha’s manslaughter. 

Lisa Giles, who was abused by Guider, pleaded for him to be kept in prison when she read a victim impact statement in the Supreme Court last month.

‘We are not physically safe if he is released – our children are not safe and our minds are not safe,’ Ms Giles told the court.

‘This is not a man who will fade into obscurity and potter humbly around his garden.’

‘His tentacles have such insidious reach. He’s not a one-trick pony and he’s not finished yet.’

Ms Giles had waived her right to anonymity after three decades to speak out for the first time in a bid to stop her abuser’s release.

‘Michael is relying on us all to assume that what’s done is done, and he’s probably quite smug at his success at avoiding being charged with any further crimes,’ she said.

‘And there are a lot of us. More of us than those who came forward to make statements, and even more still who could not use their experiences for the purposes of putting him into jail.

‘You might have been led to believe that what you experienced was ‘not that bad’ or that there is some kind of trauma hierarchy that you think you are at the bottom of. You are not. Everything counts.’

Samantha’s mother Tess told the court she was still haunted by her daughter’s last afternoon alive. She wondered if Samantha had said: ‘I want my mummy.’

‘Did she wonder where I was and why I wasn’t there to help her?’ she asked.

Ms Knight said Guider showed no remorse for killing her daughter and continued to drug and sexually assault more children after her death.

She had ‘imagined thousands and thousands of scenarios, over and over and over again’ regarding Samantha’s fate.

‘Was she so scared that she used the words of a younger child? Did she say ‘I want my mummy’? Did she tell him ‘I want to go home’?.’

‘Please don’t release him into the community until the time comes when we have no choice,’ she had asked the judge.

Chantelle Daly, another of Guider’s victims, said her abuser being allowed on day release and his classification as a model prisoner were ‘the ultimate slap in the face’.

She believed authorities underestimated the threat Guider still posed.

‘You’re a prisoner for horrific crimes. You’re in jail for committing the ultimate evil, you can’t be a ‘model prisoner’. It’s a disgusting statement,’ she said.

Forensic psychiatrist Jonathon Adams had agreed Guider still posed a high risk of re-offending.

He risked relapsing into sexual fantasies and urges if he saw children running around and had access to them, Dr Adams told the court.

Guider had been able to serve sentences for serial sex crimes against children concurrently, rather than one after the other.

He was jailed in 1996 after pleading guilty to 60 child sex offences including sexual intercourse without consent against 11 children – nine girls and two boys.

He was sentenced to a maximum term of 16 years.

In 2000 Guider was charged with eight more child sex offences from the 1980s and sentenced to further terms of six and a half years and 12 months.

Those terms did not increase his maximum sentence.

Then in 2002 he pleaded guilty to killing Samantha and was sentenced to a maximum term of 17 years.

Ms Giles said: ‘Had Guider been serving his sentences consecutively, we wouldn’t be here today. He would be incarcerated for life.’

 

Robert Fardon: Serial Rapist 

Robert Fardon has spent a total of 30 years in jail for a series of sex offences committed in the 1960s and 1980s.

While he was released from prison six years ago, the 70-year-old had all the conditions surrounding that release dropped last month after going five years without committing another offence.

Fardon was initially moved into state-sponsored housing in south Brisbane and was subject to 30 strict conditions.

Sex offender Robert Fardon (pictured on the train after his release from jail) has moved into a home just metres from a primary school and a child care centre 

He was made to wear an electronic ankle bracelet and had to log his whereabouts. 

After his conditions were relaxed, Fardon moved into a new home, and while police refuse to comment on his location, word spread among members of the local community.

Some say they now live in fear of Fardon offending again.

Police argue the now elderly man’s health has deteriorated and that he no longer poses any threat to the community, but confirm he is still monitored regularly.      

Commissioner Ian Stewart said: ‘We certainly believe that the accommodation that he has doesn’t place the community at risk.’ 

Civil Liberties Council vice-president Terry O’Gorman added his team would ‘closely watch’ any potential vigilante action taken against the rapist.

Fardon is no longer classed a dangerous prisoner and recently moved out of the state-sponsored housing where he had been living since his release from prison in 2013.

He was first convicted in 1967, then aged 18, for sexual abuse offences against a 10-year-old girl, and went on to commit a string of crimes against women and girls.

Two Queensland judges found the child rapist (pictured in January 2019) should be allowed to live unsupervised in the community in a decision made public last month. The 70-year-old recently shaved off his beard

By 1978, Fardon raped a 12-year-old girl and hurt her sister. He fled to the Northern Territory, but before long he was caught and jailed.

He was released on parole after that offence, but broke his conditions. During that time in 1988, he raped and assaulted another woman, landing himself back in prison. 

In 2003 he became the first person to be jailed in Queensland indefinitely under new laws targeting repeat sex offenders but was later released on a supervision order. 

He breached his conditions of release yet again before he was finally released from prison most recently in 2013.

After five years without offending, he had his conditions relaxed and is now free to go about the community as he pleases. 

SERIAL RAPIST ROBERT FARDON’S LIFE OF CRIME

1967 – Convicted at 18 for attempted carnal knowledge of a girl under ten. Released on a good behaviour bond.

1978 – Raped a 12-year-old girl, wounded her sister. Fled to the Northern Territory but was caught and jailed.

1988 – Broke parole by travelling to Townsville. Violently raped and assaulted a woman. Sent back to jail.

2003 – Became the first person in Queensland to be jailed indefinitely under new laws targeting repeat sex offenders.

 

2006 – Released on a supervision order with 32 conditions.

2007 – Breached the order by going to a school, breaching curfew and travelling to Townsville. He’s briefly returned to prison before released in October.

2008 – Re-arrested over rape of a 61-year-old intellectually disabled woman.

2010 – Sentenced to 10 years’ jail for the rape. The conviction was quashed on appeal a few months later but Fardon remained in jail due to other earlier breaches of a supervision order.

2011 – Government launches lengthy court battle to keep him in jail.

2013 – Released on supervision order.

2014 – Brief return to prison before court orders Fardon’s release into supervised accommodation.

2018, August – Court denies a Queensland government bid to extend a supervision order governing how Fardon lives in the community. It expires in October.

2019, January – Fardon has been released into the community and is now free to live wherever he chooses, and is also not subject to electronic monitoring, curfews or mandatory counselling

Source: AAP 

John Holschier: Wife Murderer and Baby Basher   

John Raymond Holschier’s supervision order was revoked in 2019, five years after he was released from prison in 2014 having served a sentence for the death of his wife. 

Holschier killed Betina Givorshner, 22, inside their family home on Sydney’s north shore in September 1989, before throwing their 13-month-old daughter Samantha against a wall.

The now 51-year-old was jailed in 1991 for the crimes. 

John Raymond Holschier (pictured), 51, is a free man walking the streets of Sydney almost 30 years after he bashed his wife to death with a brick and threw his 13-month-old daughter into a wall – leaving her with permanent brain issues and disabilities

On September 25, 1989, Holschier murdered his wife Betina Givorshner (left, holding her daughter Samantha) before turning on his little girl and throwing her against a wall. Holschier spent almost 20 years in prison for his cruel crime, but is now a free man

The convicted criminal previously told Daily Mail Australia he was a changed man after the revocation of his restrictions.

In April, the NSW Supreme Court rejected an application to keep him under their watch, despite the judge agreeing he potentially posed a ‘severe’ risk to the community. 

His permanently brain damaged daughter Samantha told Daily Mail Australia the ruling was devastating.   

‘We’re just waiting for him to die. We’re just waiting for him to not be here,’ Samantha said. 

HOLSCHIER’S TROUBLED TIME ON PAROLE:

By Joshua Hanrahan for Daily Mail Australia 

Since being granted parole in 2008, John Holschier has ended up back behind bars on numerous occasions:

2009: Holschier breaches his parole by visiting the home of his ex-wife and two children

May 2010: He threatens to ‘slit the throat’ of his mother and ‘burn her house down’

November 2010: Threatens his ex-wife and family. They have AVOs taken out against him.

March 2011: Holschier is charged with breaching AVO and is placed on a bond.

July 2011: While at a half-way house in Cooma he acts in ‘antagonistic’ fashion towards the other ex-inmates.

November 2011: Admits to using amphetamines and is sent back to jail.

January 2016: After staying out of trouble for a couple of years, Holschier assaults his ex-wife by throwing a TV remote at her.

July 2016: Holschier spends three months in prison but not long after getting out breaches an AVO by calling his ex-wife.

November 2016: As part of his ESO, Holschier is forced to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet which he lets run out of battery – a breach of the order. 

April 2018: Refuses to undergo a drug test which ends up giving a ‘faint’ positive for methylamphetamine use. It is later revealed the positive may have been because of cold and flu medication Holschier had been using.

‘Obviously we wish he could’ve died in jail, but we kind of always knew that eventually it was going to come down to him having his parole restrictions taken off.

‘It’s not ideal, but you know what, it could be a blessing in disguise. He hasn’t had freedom in 30 years so I feel like it might only be a matter of time before he stuffs up and goes back (to prison) again.’ 

At present, Holschier is free to live in a taxpayer-funded housing commission home in a quiet Sydney street, next door to young families – just like the one he destroyed. 

He is also eligible for funding from the National Disability Insurance Scheme to maintain his mental health. 

Holschier has extensive mental health needs, and receives treatment for chronic schizophrenia, which has to administered by injection as he will be at high risk of relapse if he misses his medication by just hours. 

While he enjoys his newfound freedom, his daughter continues to suffer the effects of her father’s actions, even 30 years on. 

‘I had a damaged frontal lobe in my brain, so I don’t have any peripheral vision and my balance is really poor,’ she said.

‘It’s probably affected me more as I’ve gotten older, I mean I can’t drive at night because my vision is so bad that it is dangerous.

‘After he bashed my mother he threw me against a wall and called my grandfather to claim that someone had broken into the house… he tried to make out he hadn’t done it,’ she said.

‘He then went and washed the blood off me, and it wasn’t until police arrived that the officer who was holding me said: ‘Something is not right with this baby’.’

Samantha Mischewski (pictured) was thrown against a wall when she was a 13-month-old baby by Holschier, her father. Speaking for the first time this week she told Daily Mail Australia she is counting down the days until he dies

HOLSCHIER’S CRUEL ATTACK ON HIS WIFE AND BABY DAUGHTER: 

By Joshua Hanrahan for Daily Mail Australia 

– On the evening of September 25, 1989, John Raymond Holschier arrived at his family’s home in Daisy Street, Chatswood, on Sydney’s north shore

– Holschier and Betina Givorshner had been in a ‘stormy’ relationship and they became involved in a argument, court facts state

– During the argument Holschier used a brick to repeatedly hit Ms Givorshner over the head, killing her

– He also struck his 13-month-old daughter Samantha with the brick, before he threw her hard against a wall

– Ms Givorshner was rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital where she later died

– Samantha was taken to Campbelltown Children’s Hospital and survived, but did suffer lasting brain injuries from the attack

– Holschier was charged with murder and intentionally cause grievous bodily harm. He received a life sentence for Ms Givorshner’s death and 15 years for the attack on Samantha

– He was released on parole in 2008, after almost 20 years in jail 

When approached at his housing commission home and asked if he was a changed man, Holschier said: ‘Yeah, of course I am’

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk