Australia’s youngest murderer SLD has law officer intimidation charges dismissed

Australia’s youngest murderer, notorious for the callous 2001 killing of three-year-old Courtney Morley-Clarke, has had a win in court despite a magistrate expressing “significant concern” about his conduct.

SLD, covered by a towel, being arrested as a 13-year-old in 2001 for the murder of Courtney Morley-Clarke.

Australia’s youngest murderer, notorious for the callous 2001 killing of three-year-old Courtney Morley-Clarke, has been cleared of two intimidation charges.

The now 37-year-old, who was 13 at the time of the murder on the Central Coast, appeared in Wollongong Local Court on Thursday where Magistrate Michael Love found him not guilty of intimidating a law officer and intimidating a law officer’s relative.

The hearing, held in October, saw a transcript tendered of two recorded prison calls made between SLD and a Corrective Services NSW department supervising officer (DSO) in the months after he was arrested for breaching an extended supervision order (ESO).

An ESO is a highly-restrictive court-imposed order, which at the time of SLD’s release in September, 2023, fewer than 200 of the state’s most high-risk violence, sex and terrorism offenders were subjected to.

The prison officer who drew the ire of SLD had reported him to police after noticing him sporting an ankle monitor and approaching women and children at Bulli Beach in northern Illawarra.

Courtney Morley-Clarke was just three when she was murdered.

SLD was subsequently arrested and charged with three counts of breaching his ESO with the offender found guilty of one of the charges in a judge-alone trial at Wollongong District Court in September.

In one of the calls SLD said he would “kill that f--ker” because he believed the officer had been “lying throughout the entire brief”.

“When you murdered someone before and you make threats to murder someone again that’s very serious … people are gonna take that really seriously,” the DSO said.

“Would I be in a murderous rage? Would I make threats to kill and rape that person’s daughter, to kidnap them? Absolutely not.”

SLD responded: “Hey I don’t think I said rape did I?”

“You did, you did,” the DSO said.

Magistrate Michael Love gave his decision on Thursday at Wollongong Local Court.

Evidence was also heard about SLD having the names of the prison officer and his family on a piece of paper in his cell.

The court had heard these threats were relayed to the prison officer with SLD’s barrister Dev Bhutani submitting this was not his client’s intention.

Before handing down his decision on Thursday, Mr Love detailed more details about the case including statements by the ESO and prison officer.

The DSO said SLD “expressed frustration” and felt “aggrieved” by the prison officer he was “fixated” on exacting revenge upon.

They said SLD wanted to murder the officer’s wife and child and if he was unable to do so he would covertly kidnap him.

When the DSO asked if SLD was serious, the offender expressed he was “very serious” and had been struggling to sleep because he was “thinking about this daily”.

The complainant wrote the situation “immediately made me feel scared for me and my family especially knowing what he had done”.

He said the threats had “really affected” his wife who was already “hypervigilant”.

Mr Love dismissed the charges after finding the prosecution was unable to prove two key elements of the case.

Mr Love said it was not proved SLD “deliberately intended” for the remarks to get back to the officer given the calls were in a “therapeutic and rapport building environment” with the DSO.

The magistrate referred to a case where this was established with a man going into a Sydney police station and explicitly telling an officer to pass on a threat to another officer.

“While it is of significant concern and evidence of his propensity for extreme violence, in my view there was no intention to pass this on to the complainant,” Mr Love said.

The other element of the case Mr Love found the prosecution had not proved was the complainant being a law officer at the time of the interaction between him and SLD at Bulli Beach.

“The complainant was an informed and vigilant member of the public, but he was not acting in his duty as a law officer when he made the report to police,” Mr Love said.

Despite the dismissal, an apprehended violence order was put in place for a period of five years for the protection of the officer and his family.

“Thank you judge I won’t be doing this again,” SLD said at the conclusion of the case.

SLD will be sentenced in the District Court by Judge William Fitzsimmons next week for the ESO breach.

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