Central Coast child murderer SLD awaits freedom chance in NSW Supreme Court

Australia’s youngest murderer, who was found to have associated with a child 22 years after killing a three-year-old girl, is a step closer to being released from custody.

SLD (under a towel) with police after the murder of Courtney Morley-Clarke in 2001.

Australia’s youngest murderer, who was found to have associated with a child 22 years after killing a three-year-old girl, is a step closer to being released from custody after being sentenced to a non-parole period less than the time he has been held behind bars on remand.

The murderer, who can only be referred to as SLD, took the life of three-year-old Courtney Morley-Clarke on the Central Coast in 2001.

SLD, now 37, snatched Courtney from her bed in her family’s Point Clare home before stabbing her through the chest and discarding her lifeless body down a grassy ditch.

The killer spent more than two decades behind bars before being released in 2023 on a NSW Supreme Court-imposed extended supervision order (ESO) which at the time fewer than 200 of the state’s most high-risk violence, sex and terrorism offenders were subjected to.

Within weeks of release SLD was arrested after being charged with three counts of breaching the ESO, specifically a requirement barring him from “associating” with children.

Courtney Morley-Clarke was three when she was murdered.

Police Chief Inspector Greg Ashurst (left) outside Courtney Morley-Clarke's Point Clare during the search for her body. Picture: Ron Hutchings

SLD pleaded not guilty to the charges connected to a day at Bulli Beach in October, 2023, where the man approached three separate women with children while an NDIS support worker was supposed to be monitoring him under a “line of sight” condition.

In a judge-alone trial at Wollongong District Court earlier this year, Judge William Fitzsimmons found the offender had associated with one of the children, an infant, who was being showered by their mother.

Australia's youngest murderer approached a woman showering her child at Bulli Beach.

“He freely and voluntarily engaged in further conversation [with the mother about the child who] would have been obviously a toddler-aged child,” the judge said.

“He deliberately chose to comment on the child’s physical appearance while the child was unable to interact with the accused.”

The judge had highlighted in the sentencing hearing earlier this month about concerns he had with how it came to be a slight in stature NDIS support worker two weeks into the job was being employed to supervise a hardened criminal.

“I don’t think anyone here would disagree with this observation, the person who was supervising him on the day was clearly not up to the task and it troubles me,” he said.

“He was permitted to be at a public beach while there were going to be children present with the supervision of a delegate who is clearly not up to the task … It is troubling that this was allowed to occur.

“To be quite frank, how much confidence can the court have that a supervision order will be properly implemented and enforced when on this particular day the line of sight condition was not complied with on at least one occasion?”

On Monday before Judge Fitzsimmons handed down his sentence, the court heard about multiple instances of violence on SLD’s record including two in-custody assaults within the first three years of his time in jail for Courtney’s murder.

In 2013, SLD was sentenced for sending a document threatening death or grievous bodily harm and wounding a law enforcement officer.

Shortly before SLD committed the breach at Bulli Beach, he had breached the order on three occasions with two of the breaches relating to threats of self harm.

Judge Fitzsimmons noted SLD, who is subjected to the ESO until at least 2029, has shown he “will not comply with orders to what he does not agree with”.

Judge Fitzsimmons found the latest breach was “towards the lower end of objective seriousness” and imposed a head sentence of one year and six month.

The judge set a non-parole period of 13 months meaning with time already served SLD was “entitled to immediate release on parole”.

However, the killer’s conditional freedom will be for the consideration of the NSW Supreme Court after Justice Peter Garling imposed an interim detention order (IDO) which is due to expire on Wednesday.

SLD will appear in the Supreme Court on Tuesday regarding whether the IDO will become a continuing detention order.

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