
This post deals with sexual abuse and could be triggering for some readers.
Mum of two Lisa Giles was just five years old when she was sexually abused by family friend Michael Guider, who she then referred to as ‘Uncle Mick.’
Guider later pleaded guilty to the abuse of Lisa and 12 other children between 1980 and 1996.
Subsequently he pleaded guilty to the 1986 manslaughter of nine-year-old Samantha Knight whose body has never been found.
He was jailed for 17 years and, despite the objections of Lisa, the rest of his victims, and Samantha’s family, he was released in September last year.
Now, Lisa must navigate his freedom...
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Hello, I’m Lisa Giles. Last year I read out a lengthy 40 minute statement to the NSW Supreme Court to try to stop our old family friend, Michael Guider from being released into the community after his multiple concurrent sentences had been completed.
Hedley Thomas worked with me in the weeks leading up to the court hearing to shape my public emergence with this article.
Unfortunately, Justice Richard Button decided that Guider had exhausted everything the prison system could offer and he was released in early September 2019 with a series of heavy restrictions.
Watch: 60 Minutes on how Samantha Knight's killer was allowed to walk free. Post continues below.
As you can imagine, I am a person who often has extremely niche conversations about dark topics, and I must navigate intricately nuanced relationships.
My trauma story curls up beside me snoring on this wintry afternoon like an antisocial pug with little dog syndrome. It takes even me some gumption to approach this beast.
So let me just reach up and get the rule book down from the Shelves of Life for how to handle the feelings that arise from finding out exactly where your childhood abuser lives right now, in the community after being released from jail in spite of the danger he poses.
This happened last night. I read about how members of the public walked past him and said hello to him in the street, as you would say to anyone you pass on a morning walk.
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