Henry Hammond given 25-year supervision order in psych hospital over killing Courtney Herron

John Herron says the sentence handed down to the drug-affected killer who bashed his daughter Courtney to death is “completely meaningless”.

The father of a woman beaten to death with a tree branch in a Melbourne park says there needs to be an overhaul of the judicial system’s mental impairment process after her killer was ordered to spend 25 years in a psychiatric hospital.

John Herron said “no justice” had been served as he learnt his daughter Courtney’s killer would be transferred from his prison cell to Thomas Embling Hospital on Wednesday.

Henry Hammond, 28, was last year found not guilty due to mental impairment over the brutal killing of Ms Herron in Royal Park in Parkville about 4.30am on May 25, 2019.

Under current laws, Mr Herron said his daughter’s killer could be free to kill or hurt another woman again in a matter of years.

“The 25 years is nominal — it’s completely meaningless,” Mr Herron said.

“I think there’s one in Thomas Embling that’s gone that distance. The average is about eight years and, and after a few years they are roaming the streets again on day release.”

But Mr Herron said the family — and the public — will never know.

“The families are not told when they are released,” he said.

“We could be just walking down the street one day and bump into him — it’s just wrong.”

Hammond would have to apply to the court to be managed in the community if his mental health improves — but such hearings are not permitted to be reported on by the media.

“This cover-up mentality needs to go,” Mr Herron said.

“You can’t just have bodies popping up and say we can’t talk about it.”

Mr Herron said the system needs to shift from favouring protecting perpetrators over victims.

He also pushed that it should be mandatory mental impairment cases be heard by a jury instead of judge like what happened in the case of Bourke St killer James Gargasoulas.

Courtney Herron’s body was found in Royal Park.

She had been beaten to death with a tree branch.

Justice Phillip Priest found Hammond not guilty due to mental impairment in August but was unable to place him on a custodial supervision order due to no beds being available at the Victorian Institute of Mental Health, which is run out of the hospital.

He was deemed too high a risk to the public so remained in prison until he could be moved to the secured mental health facility.

Justice Priest set the 25-year nominal term after being informed late last month a bed had become available.

The order is dated back to when Hammond was arrested a day after Ms Herron’s killing.

An earlier court heard Hammond had been suffering symptoms of schizophrenia since at least 2017, and his mental health had relapsed at the time of the attack, meaning he did not know what he was doing was wrong.

He had met Ms Herron the night before in Melbourne’s CBD, before they were seen having “friendly banter” while dining together at Vegie Bar on Brunswick St.

They then joined some friends in Fitzroy to use drugs.

Courtney Herron’s grieving father, John Herron. Picture: Jason Edwards

Henry Hammond had suffered schizophrenia symptoms.

Henry Hammond will be in his 50s before he’ll be freed.

When walking through the park the next morning, Hammond picked up a tree branch, frightening Ms Herron, who asked: “Are you going to kill me?”

Hammond then repeatedly struck her with a branch for an hour until her face became unrecognisable.

He then tied Ms Herron’s feet together and dragged her lifeless body 20m to a nearby tree and smoked a cigarette.

Hammond later told police Ms Herron was a reincarnated spirit who had buried his wife alive in a past life and that he had to “destroy” her.

He went on to say the trees had dropped their branches for a reason — for him to seek revenge.

Forensicare, which runs ThomasEmbling, revealed the average length of stay at the facility before a patient is granted extended leave is just 6.3 years.

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