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60 Minutes: April 2

Another true crime story, on 60 Minutes, campaigns against the release of the killer of Bondi schoolgirl Samantha Knight.

Another true crime story, on 60 Minutes, campaigns against the release of the killer of Bondi schoolgirl Samantha Knight.

Samantha Knight – Never Forgotten
If she was still alive, Samantha Knight would have turned 40 a few days ago. Instead she will always be remembered as the bright and beautiful nine-year-old girl from Bondi who one day in August 1986 simply vanished. Her disappearance led to one of the largest police investigations and searches in New South Wales history but her body has still not been found. In 2001, the notorious paedophile Michael Guider was charged with Samantha’s murder, and six months later pleaded guilty to manslaughter, claiming he hadn’t meant to kill the little girl. Guider showed no remorse over the crime, but plenty of callousness – he said he simply couldn’t remember what he did with her body. Michael Guider is now 66 years old and, having spent the last 21 years in prison, convicted of more than 75 sexual offences against more than a dozen children, is about to become eligible for parole. In a 60 Minutes exclusive, Ross Coulthart tracks down the key witness in the investigation: the man Guider confessed his crimes to. As well, and for the first time, another of Guider’s child victims speaks publicly about how he destroyed her life. Coulthart’s interviews provide a chilling insight into the mind of an evil paedophile, and powerful testimony to keep Michael Guider locked up.
Reporter: Ross Coulthart
Producer: Garry McNab

Waist Not, Want Not
Being beautiful can be very bad for your health, according to the 24-year-old French model Victoire Macon Dauxerre. Actually, she is now an ex-model. Her fashion faux pas was to write a bestselling book exposing the ugly secrets of her profession, and explaining how the demands of being a model very nearly killed her. Victoire tells Tara Brown about the inhumane treatment of young girls in a cutthroat business where careers are made or broken on the whim of agents, photographers and clothing designers. But when Tara asks one fashion industry icon for a response to Victoire’s claims, she ends up receiving a thin-skinned temper tantrum.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producers: Stefanie Sgroi, Eliza Berkery

Broken Justice
Beth Staveley was a 68-year-old grandmother living happily on the Gold Coast with her partner of 20 years, Dennis Wakefield. But one day in June 2014, as she slept in her bed, Wakefield attacked and killed her. For police it seemed to be a tragic but straightforward domestic violence incident and Wakefield was charged with murder. However the case didn’t proceed to trial in the normal criminal system. Instead the matter was dealt with in a 30-minute hearing in Queensland’s little-known Mental Health Court. Dennis Wakefield, who had never been diagnosed with a mental illness, went from being a killer to a patient. Now, just three years on from the killing, Ross Coulthart discovers that Wakefield is back out in the community, living in an aged care facility. Alarmingly, neither the management of the home nor any of its other residents had a clue there was a killer living among them, until contacted by 60 Minutes. Coulthart’s investigation raises serious questions about Queensland’s judicial and health systems, as he attempts to find out why the wellbeing of a violent killer has seemingly overtaken consideration for the safety of the rest of the community.
Reporter: Ross Coulthart
Producer: Laura Sparkes

8:10pm Sunday on Nine.

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