{"id":623914,"date":"2026-04-22T16:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/623914\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T16:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:44:08","slug":"podcast-interviews-of-nsw-couple-jailed-for-abusing-their-daughter-in-the-spotlight-prisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/623914\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast interviews of NSW couple jailed for abusing their daughter in the spotlight | Prisons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Corrective Services New South Wales<\/a> is investigating how a journalist from The Australian was able to interview a man and a woman convicted of abusing their daughter for a podcast that raised questions about their guilt.<\/p>\n

After legal restrictions were lifted last month the victim said the podcast had been highly detrimental<\/a> to her mental health.<\/p>\n

According to Corrective Services NSW, journalists are not permitted to visit inmates or interview them by phone without written permission from the agency.<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia understands that the journalist, Richard Guilliatt, did not have permission to conduct interviews with the inmates, whose telephone calls with him from jail were recorded. In the podcast, Shadow of Doubt, they were not named and their voices were distorted to protect their identities.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunity safety is a top priority for Corrective Services NSW,\u201d a spokesperson told Guardian Australia. \u201cCorrective Services NSW takes our responsibility to protect and support victims of crime seriously. We are looking into the circumstances of this case, but we do not comment on individual inmates\u2019 circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2023 The Australian published Guilliatt\u2019s eight-part podcast investigation<\/a> featuring extensive interviews with William \u201cRob\u201d Gilfillan and Karen Gilfillan, who were jailed in 2016<\/a> for the sexual abuse of their daughter for 14 years on a rural property in northern NSW.<\/p>\n

Guilliatt began reporting on the case in 2017. The podcast claimed it might have been a \u201cgrave miscarriage of justice\u201d.<\/p>\n

The couple told him<\/a>: \u201cWe\u2019re innocent \u2026 these things just did not happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The theory was based largely on the argument that \u201cno one noticed the abuse\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe any of it,\u201d Guilliatt quoted a family friend saying in 2017. \u201cHonestly, I cannot see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another woman quoted in The Australian said: \u201cI\u2019ve thought long and hard about it; I\u2019ve looked back and asked myself, \u2018Could this really be true?\u2019 And in the end I\u2019ve decided that there is just no way it is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guilliatt floated the theory<\/a> that the victim\u2019s allegations \u201cwere based on recovered memories or \u2018dissociative flashbacks\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

The 2016 guilty verdict, and sentence of 48 years for the father, was upheld in the court of criminal appeal and in the high court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An editorial in The Australian in 2023 said the victim\u2019s story was \u201cmanifestly implausible\u201d.<\/p>\n

Guilliatt did not respond to a request for comment but defended the podcast after it was criticised by the victim in a series of articles in news.com.au<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take my professional responsibilities very seriously,\u201d Guilliatt told the news.com.au journalist Nina Funnell. \u201cEfforts were made to present a nuanced picture of this case and the many issues it raises.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Australian did not respond to questions from Guardian Australia but has defended the podcast as public interest investigative journalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe news.com.au reporting of the case includes criticism of the podcast for interviewing the convicted pedophile and his wife and reporting notes from [the victims\u2019] counselling and psychiatric treatment,\u201d its editorial said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch criticism mischaracterises public interest investigative journalism. And further restricting what can be reported from an already opaque justice system would not serve the public interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cClaims of miscarriages of justice and concerns about the failings of our mental health system warrant meticulous media scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gilfillans were not named in Shadow of Doubt, or other media, because there were suppression orders in place until a jury returned a verdict in a case in the Victorian courts against Rob Gilfillan.<\/p>\n

He was found guilty of five charges of abuse committed against two schoolgirls when he was a physical education teacher in Gippsland in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

The 69-year-old, who is serving Australia\u2019s longest sentence for child sexual abuse offences, will be sentenced for the 1980s crimes on 16 June<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Corrective Services New South Wales is investigating how a journalist from The Australian was able to interview a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-623914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}