The shocking killing of school girl Samantha Knight | 60 Minutes Australia

Samantha's face is engraved in our memory, blonde and pretty and full of innocence, a striking

girl

who has just disappeared. It was 1986, a more confident time, but the crime that occurred in the shadow of Bondi Beach would change that it could be much worse than this crime. murder of a

girl

there is nothing worse than that and this type of crime changed things for people on August 19, 1986 Samantha Knight disappeared. All the police knew was the nine-year-old girl who lived with her mother and an apartment near Bondi. Beach had gone to the local store to buy pencils they saw her at a quarter to seven around the corner it has been 16 years since Tess the night she last saw Samantha 16 years of not knowing what really happened to her daughter, there were many times when I felt like I could.

I couldn't do it, but in the end I always did it with the beliefs that I had an obligation to find out what had happened to her. He may not be able to save her, but he might discover the story that this man, guide Michael Anthony, can answer. In all the exam night questions, he is a pedophile who systematically drugged, photographed and sexually assaulted countless young children, but it was only this year that he admitted that Samantha Knight was one of the many caught in his excavated will in which you can see their points where. I've dug and then it's the rock during the day Gator was a real nature lover, his hobby was identifying Aboriginal artifacts, he even appeared on television every day, every day, something is under threat, a guy who worked as a gardener and According to Detective Sergeant Neil Tuckerman, this provided the perfect cover for his pedophilia, the local gardener who could insert himself into people's lives to look after their children, a charming guy in every way and had practically become the Uncle Michael to them and I'm sure after a period of time the trust wore off. there and began babysitting, it was as a babysitter that he came into contact with Samantha.

He had become friends with the mother of one of her playmates, who, unbeknownst to him, on the night of the test let them go babysit when Samantha came to sleep when the mother left her. The Garda abused and photographed the girls after drugging their soft drinks with normal sedatives. In which the little boy drinks a soft drink. I think very few, especially a small special gift, is our secret. They teleoperated. Why do you think it was so? successful in gaining access to so many children, including yourself, the gift of gab, he was very easy to talk to, he could amuse children in the blink of an eye, few know better how God works and what he did than Alex, now 32, she was 8 years old when they met and, like Samantha the night before, she was young and pretty and would soon become one of his victims.

If Michael brought me a drink it was usually from an open bottle in a glass, when do you assume that meant you were being drugged? Now, do you remember that he sexually abused him? Not at the time it was happening. No. No. What are your memories? Now there are many memories scattered. There are many fragments. More memories of being touched, held, and restrained than any clear, clear image Alex witnessed. God, his obsession with Samantha on the night of 1986 Alex, now a teenager, would sometimes be taken by the Garda to Samantha's house, there he would just park outside and wait and Michael would tell you that you are there, for what reason, why? what, by someone, and this was it? before Samantha disappeared before and after and then she looked at the mannequin on Main Street and what she said about it she said it was badly dressed and I wasn't right I didn't like the many the police had shown who, with no clues, were desperate for help , but Guider was never under suspicion.

Ten years would pass with the case unsolved, then a breakthrough came in 1996 when two of his victims finally reported Guider to the police, raided his home and found pornographic photographs of young children. I also found newspaper clippings about Samantha's disappearance, but there is still no evidence connecting him to the crime. Gyda pleaded guilty to 66 offenses against eleven children and was jailed by Samantha Knight. He didn't say anything other than that help would now come from an unlikely place after the police, without naming Guider, gave a description of a possible suspect in Samantha's case from that description of him, I guess it was him and I I contacted Bondi police hoping to clarify that it wasn't him or if it was him to do something about it.

His younger brother, Tim, a convicted armed robber, decided to help the police by confronting Michael. They wanted him to go and ask him if he was involved in Samantha's night case, so I went to visit him. Asked. He said no, and did he believe him? at that moment at that moment no one I didn't believe that he was telling the truth because he looked me in the eyes and I looked in his eyes and I didn't believe that he was very honest with me but the police would soon have better luck in jail. The guide told some of his secrets to his fellow prisoners, who reported on him in 1998.

Police raided a storage shed in Sydney's western suburbs. There they found guarded scrapbooks and thousands of photographs. Number 24 3 banishing children included in In the hallway there were photographs of Samara. There was one particular roll of film related to the birthday party of one of Samantha's friends. Detective Darren Slice says this was the breakthrough that the police had been looking for because they now had evidence that put Samantha Knight in the company of Gardez and on this particular night there was Samantha and her two friends and we were able to prove, we demonstrated through witnesses that Samantha and the other two children were babysat by Michael that night.

Are you participating in this interview of your own free will? The guide was questioned about Samantha. and Michael Wacha - ooh yeah, what was your relationship with Samantha? I met Samantha two or three times and I really can't remember you. It wasn't a partnership at all. He was really admitting now that he knew Samantha, but still. denying any role in their disappearance I took photos inside the house of these children now I don't have them unless the police had the night I really don't know what happened to them but they weren't indecent photos by any stretch of the imagination but the crucial photos revealed the true story what begins as a happy children's party ends in terrible abuse.

Included was this photo of Samantha obviously drugged. Some of the photographs in Gardez's collections were identifiable photographs of children that had a combination of innocence and villainy. Photos of Alex were also found among Gardez's photos. Now she would know what the Garda had done to her while she was drugged. I think until they showed me photographs of myself. I don't think he honestly believed it. I think I still woke up nice mornings. Hoping this is a really bad reminder scale, why did you have the instinct to attack this man? Now anger. It actually surprises me that someone could be so premeditated and deceitful and calculating.

It's like someone opened a horror movie and you just couldn't walk. out of this because you're in this in February of last year the police accused Guider of Samantha's murder but their evidence was circumstantial what they needed was a confession Tim Garden knew a secret that could help some Michael had never spoken about the abuse they both They suffered like children in a children's home, one particular pedophile who came there drugged and abused the children and the first child he drugged and abused was Michael, he then threatened Michael that if Michael said anything about it he would kill him in the In Michael's case, he had also had this guilt trip for not reporting and was therefore to blame for his younger brother and all the other children being abused with the help of the prison psychiatrists.

Tim would use this information to provoke a confession in July of this year. between the brothers it was arranged in jail now I pressed the button that the psychiatrist was the big button to press, what was his fault and the way I pressed it was that I simply told him look Michael, I always wanted to tell you this and I don't know if They did, but I just wanted to know if you ever felt guilty about not blowing the whistle, so to speak, at the boys' house and then sexually abusing me and the rest of the boys thank you. and he burst into tears at that moment and then the psychiatrists were right, he looked at me, you know, tears were still streaming down his face and he said: I want you to do something for me and I told him what and he said: I love you. to find out from the detectives what I have to do to plead guilty to what: the Samantha North thing six weeks ago Michael gyda pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter claiming he had accidentally overdosed on Samantha was sentenced to 17 years 3 weeks ago something very curious The guide happened, he wrote for the test the night and what did he say in that liver?

I can't tell him anything more about what happened to Samantha's remains, but Tess knew he could tell her more. She responded and gave the letter to Tuckerman and posted these documents in the morning. live from the Homicide Unit we are here to see the prisoner michael god Oh thank you two weeks ago they went to prison Goldman Garda was taken from his cell to join them later he gave them a second litter Fortis this time he was more specific about What he did with Samantha in the litter, Gyda says that after Samantha's death he buried her body at the Kirribilli Yacht Squadron in Sydney, where he was a gardener at the time, some time later and does not say when he claims to have returned after He noticed that construction work was being done and dug up his remains and disposed of them in a trash container.

Goddard doesn't know what the garbage truck's movements were from there, do you think he does? Don't know. Don't know. Me and I need this. This is precisely why you need to tell the police. To find out more about what happened, these photographs of the construction work were discovered by police taken by the Garda himself at the time he says he disposed of Samantha's body. Kiera Billie is very important to him, it's where she worked, where she lives at the time. The test makes sense. The nose guard continues to keep secrets. She is determined not to give up until he tells everything.

I think she is starting to realize the enormity of what she did and if she really wants to pay it forward, then I hope she follows through. Talking to me about Alex, his life is still in crisis. Do you ever look back and think she could have been Samantha? Not every day, what did Michael do with your life? No, I have to be honest, I can't. tell you I can tell you what I would like not to spend every day what is that mm-hmm I would like to be able to sleep I would like not to be I don't seem to have any middle ground.

Either I sit there all day and do nothing or I can't sit still all day. There is nothing I would like. I wouldn't say that every day the world is a wonderful place, but I know that it's not just everyday things that I like. Being able to hold down a job I wish I could go a day without horrible thoughts coming up and the strangest things happening to you, the smells of things, someone laughing in the crowd, no matter where you go or where. but there's always something that never leaves you Hi, I'm Liz Hayes, thanks for watching to keep up to date with the latest news from 60 Minutes Australia.

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