{"id":924601,"date":"2026-10-11T20:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T20:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/924601\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T20:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T20:16:13","slug":"the-australians-shadow-of-doubt-podcast-delayed-sadistic-paedophiles-trial-court-documents-reveal-australian-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/924601\/","title":{"rendered":"The Australian\u2019s Shadow of Doubt podcast delayed \u2018sadistic\u2019 paedophile\u2019s trial, court documents reveal | Australian media"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian\u2019s podcast Shadow of Doubt led to a delay of 10 months for the sex offence trial of a \u201csadistic\u201d paedophile<\/a> already serving a 48-year jail term for abusing his daughter, court documents have revealed.<\/p>\n

William \u201cRob\u201d Gilfillan, a former physical education teacher, was to stand trial in Victoria in February last year on five counts of indecent assault and sexual penetration of a person under 16, relating to two schoolgirls in his care in Gippsland in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Due to the presumption of innocence the jury could not be told about Gilfillan\u2019s convictions for child abuse in New South Wales.<\/p>\n

The Shadow of Doubt podcast, launched in March 2023, claimed the conviction for the rape and torture of his daughter in 2016 may be a \u201cgrave miscarriage of justice\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gilfillan and his ex-wife, Karen, who was also jailed for sexual abuse, told The Australian<\/a> from jail: \u201cWe\u2019re innocent \u2026 these things just did not happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Neither the podcast nor other reporting named the Gilfillans because there were suppression orders in place until a jury returned a verdict in the Victorian courts.<\/p>\n

But details such as the family\u2019s involvement in high-level athletics and teaching meant people recognised them.<\/p>\n

Sign up to get Guardian Australia\u2019s weekly media diary as a free newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n

On the eve of the empanelment of the jury in the Victorian case last year, the defence barrister, Paul Kounnas, told the court his client\u2019s name and criminal history was easily discoverable online.<\/p>\n

Kounnas said the reporting of the jail interview by the journalist Richard Guilliatt had sparked feverish speculation on internet forums such as Reddit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe podcast is the first link that comes up on typing the accused\u2019s name into Google, even though he is not identified by name in that podcast,\u201d Kounnas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe podcast is one called Shadow of Doubt \u2026 and it details the record prison sentences received in this matter and alludes to the nature of the \u2018depraved abuse\u2019 that the trial was subject of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kounnas applied for a permanent stay of the trial, arguing the \u201cprejudice is immediate and obvious\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been inflamed to such a degree by the podcast, which I understand was reasonably high profile, that it\u2019s fuelled the internet flames, so to speak,\u201d Kounnas said in court transcripts seen by Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n

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The prosecutor, Sandra MacDougall, said the publicity had \u201ccreated an irredeemable prejudice to the conduct of this trial\u201d.<\/p>\n

Justice Michael O\u2019Connell denied a stay but ordered the director of public prosecutions to attempt to remove the prejudicial material from the internet before the trial could go ahead. He delayed jury selection until 1 December 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very troubled by the continuing position where these comments remain on the internet notwithstanding that, for weeks now we\u2019ve identified a very significant problem potentially affecting the fairness of the trial and nothing\u2019s been done it seems to resolve the problem,\u201d O\u2019Connell said.<\/p>\n

When the trial went ahead in December the jury found Gilfillan guilty of \u201cbrazen and forcible\u201d sexual crimes and he was sentenced in June<\/a> to seven-and-a-half years in jail, to be served concurrently with his record 48-year term.<\/p>\n

The Australian did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

In April, Corrective Services NSW said it was investigating<\/a> how Guilliatt had been able to interview the couple in jail.<\/p>\n

After legal restrictions were lifted, the victim in the New South Wales case agreed to be identified by news.com.au<\/a> and said the podcast had been highly detrimental<\/a> to her mental health.<\/p>\n

In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline<\/a> on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts<\/a> on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation<\/a> on 1300 657 380. In the UK, the NSPCC<\/a> offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac<\/a>) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp<\/a> abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian\u2019s podcast Shadow of Doubt led to a delay of 10 months for the sex offence trial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":924602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-924601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924601","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=924601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}