Simon KNIGHT

    Sex: Male
Date of Birth: 1973    
At time of disappearance -          
Age when missing: 32 Height (cm): 182.0 Build: Solid
Hair Colour: Red/Ginger Eye Colour: Blue Complexion:  
Nationality:   Racial Appearance: Caucasian    
Circumstances -  Simon Knight, a well-liked Newtown chef, was last seen at the City Crown Hotel in Surry Hills, Sydney on the 21st of July 2005. Simon did not turn up to work since this date and did not collect his wages. Simon had his silver "Gary Fischer" bike with him at the time he disappeared. There are serious concerns for his safety and welfare.

The Faces Of The Disappeared

Date: 17-Oct-2007 - DNA online magazine

Sydney police are trying to piece together the last hours of Cronulla man Matthew Leveson, who went missing on his way home from Arq nightclub om September 23 and is presumed dead.

Leveson's abandoned car was found outside the public toilets at Waratah Park Reserve on Rawson Avenue, Sutherland (in the far south of Sydney) on Thursday, September 27.

Detectives believe the car was driven to the reserve between September 23 and 24, but evidence suggests that Leveson did not park the car there himself.

When he went missing, Matthew was wearing a black singlet and khaki cargo pants. He was leaving Arq, in Taylor Square, towards dawn on Sunday September 23 and is 5'7" with an athletic build and bleached blond hair.

If you have any information on Matthew please contact Melissa Cooper at Sutherland Police Station on 02 9541 3899.

Matthew's disappearance may remind some of Simon Knight, also from Sydney, who was last seen in Surry Hills on July 20, 2005. Simon had his silver Gary Fisher bike with him at the time of his disappearance and his bank account has remained untouched since that day.

Knight was openly gay and suffered from depression, and had gone missing for a short period on one occasion previously. Simon is six feet tall with a solid build. He has ginger hair and would be 34.

A good friend and former flatmate of Simon is Sydney playwright Lachlan Philpott, whose current work, Colder, is an abstraction of his feelings about Simon's disappearance.

"Colder tells the story of a increasingly isolated guy who eventually goes missing, and in that sense it's a response to Simon going missing," Lachlan told DNA. "More so, though, it's about that paradox in the gay community where we spend a lot of time staring at people but if someone disappears, whether they walk on by, leave the bar of actually become a Missing Person, we seem to lose interest in them really quickly."

Lachlan was nominated for the Griffin Award for Colder which may be produced in Melbourne next year by the Red Stitch Theatre Company.

 

$100k offered to help find Sydney man

Posted March 22nd 2009 - ABC

A $100,000 reward is being offered for information about the disappearance of a Sydney man three years ago.

Simon Knight was last seen at the City Crown Hotel in Surry Hills on July 21, 2005.

He has not been seen or heard from since.

Police are unsure whether Mr Knight's disappearance is suspicious or if he is still alive.

Officers hope the reward will result in new leads in their investigation.

$100,000 reward to help solve Simon Knight's disappearance

NSW Minister for Police Tony Kelly today announced a $100,000 reward to help uncover the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of a Sydney man three years ago.

Simon Knight was last seen at the City Crown Hotel in Surry Hills on 21 July, 2005. He lived in Redfern and was 32 years old when he disappeared.

Officers from the Missing Person Unit together with police from the Redfern Local Area Command formed Strike Force Glenlea to investigate Mr Knight’s disappearance.

Mr Kelly said exhaustive efforts by police investigators were unable to confirm the circumstances surrounding Mr Knight’s disappearance.

“An inquest was held into Mr Knight’s disappearance in July last year and Deputy State Coroner Dillon was unable to confirm whether Mr Knight was dead,” Mr Kelly said.

“At the conclusion of the inquest, the Deputy State Coroner recommended a reward be offered for information about Mr Knight’s disappearance and the Government has now endorsed a $100,000 reward.”

Mr Kelly said investigators hoped the significant reward will encourage the community to come forward with valuable information.

“Mr Knight’s family deserve to know what happened to their loved one and I hope the community will do what it can to assist police with their inquiries,” Mr Kelly said.

“Community input could change the course of the investigation and solve the mysterious circumstances of Mr Knight’s disappearance.

“I encourage anyone with information to contact police, regardless of how insignificant the details may seem.”

Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

 
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Your help may give police the clue they need to close this case and provide some comfort for the families of victims.

Reward for gay disappearance


Simon Knight’s mother has called it a last-ditch effort to find what happened to her gay son.

The NSW Government will front a $100,000 reward for information about Knight’s disappearance on 21 July 2005.

The then 32-year-old suffered from depression but had stopped taking medication. He was last seen at a Surry Hills hotel and had spent the night with an escort from a Kings Cross escort agency.

An inquest was held into Mr Knight’s disappearance in July last year and Deputy State Coroner Dillon was unable to confirm whether Mr Knight was dead, Police Minister Tony Kelly said this week.

Mr Knight’s family deserve to know what happened to their loved one and I hope the community will do what it can to assist police with their inquiries.

His mother, Robyn Conlan, said the case wasn’t taken seriously enough at the time.

"He was 32, gay, taking drugs at the time fairly heavily, and they disappear all the time", she told Sydney Star Observer. "We were very angry, because it was my ex-husband and myself who found where he had stayed the night and the escort that he was with."

After fighting to obtain the police brief, Conlan and Knight’s father, Robert, found police had described their son as "a prostitute -” the first they learned of it.

He just disappeared. He left the house he was sharing, with his bicycle and his camera and withdrew $500 from the bank and went to this hotel, obviously tried to get this particular escort. But there were conflicting stories about the escort and his friend.

She hoped someone might have further information that the reward could entice.

Meanwhile, the mother of 26-year-old Chris Matthews approached Sydney Star Observer saying her son who went missing on 10 January this year on Western Australia’s Vasse Hwy may have been trying to resolve his sexuality.

Homicide Survivors Support After Murder Group founder Peter Rolfe tries to support families like those of Knight and recent Narrabeen beat manslaughter victim Gerard Flemming. Rolfe’s business partner Steve Dempsey was murdered at a beat.

One of the worst things about these cases is how it gets picked up by [the media], it can be tough on the families, he said. Dempsey’s murderer was given life, but Rolfe was concerned the jury took four days to reach a guilty decision. The juries can be biased, he said.

Provocation [as a legal defence] has been removed, but you’ve still got people’s minds. I can only say I’m grateful that there aren’t that many gay murders happening now.

info: Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.