Schizophrenic killer Henry Hammond not guilty of murdering Courtney Herron
The terrifying final moments of Courtney Herron’s life before she was bashed to death with a tree branch by a crazed schizophrenic have been revealed, as her killer was found not guilty of murder due to mental impairment.
Police & Courts
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A schizophrenic killer bashed Melbourne woman Courtney Herron with a tree branch for nearly an hour in a bid to “destroy” her evil spirit, a court has heard.
Henry Hammond, 27, went “hell for leather” during the violent killing in Royal Park in May last year while suffering profound religious and grandiose delusions.
Hammond was found not guilty of murder due to mental impairment with details of Ms Herron’s brutal death revealed for the first time in court on Monday.
Ms Herron, 25, and Hammond met for the first time just hours before her death on May 25, with the pair striking up a conversation in Melbourne’s CBD before travelling to Fitzroy together to meet friends and use drugs.
The two dined together at Vegiebar on Brunswick St where CCTV captured “friendly banter” before they returned to the friend’s home to use more drugs.
Shortly after 4.30am the following morning, they were walking through the Parkville park when Hammond picked up a tree branch, frightening Ms Herron who asked: “Are you going to kill me?”
Hammond bludgeoned the young woman for about 50 minutes, with a witness in the park telling police he heard “screams then a hitting sound”.
“He was going hell for leather, he was so intense he was grunting,” the witness said.
Hammond would later tell police Ms Herron was a reincarnated spirit who had buried his wife alive in a past life.
“He said he recognised her treachery towards him and his family,” Prosecutor Melissa Mahady told a special hearing on Monday.
“He said the trees had dropped their branches for a reason … to get his revenge,” Ms Mahady said.
Hammond then tied Ms Herron’s feet together and dragged her lifeless body 20m to a nearby tree and smoked a cigarette.
Justice Phillip Priest delivered the not guilty verdict after hearing evidence from a forensic psychologists who said it was likely Hammond had been suffering symptoms of schizophrenia since at least 2017.
The psychologist said the offending occurred during a relapse of the severe mental illness during which Hammond would not have understood what he was doing was wrong.
“He believed she was not who she was – perhaps a spirit had entered her body,”
“(Hammond) did not understand the nature of what he was doing, that he was killing Courtney at the time,” he said.
He dismissed suggestions by Ms Herron’s family that Hammond could be feigning his mental illness, saying the history of his symptoms – which stretched at least three years – would be “virtually impossible” to fake.
He said Hammond’s use of cannabis and ice in the hours before the killing likely exacerbated his delusions, but did not cause them.
The court heard Ms Herron was an intelligent young woman who had fallen in with a bad crowd at the time of her death leading her to illicit drugs and a deteriorated mental state.
The former trainee at the Department of Health had been couch surfing after a period of hospitalisation.
Her father, John Herron, told the Herald Sun his daughter had “the world at her feet”.
“Words really can’t describe how bad it is,” Mr Herron said.
“There’s nothing to describe it. There’s always this feeling. A feeling of that we’ll never see her again. It’s the ever-present pain.”
Justice Priest will deliver further orders next month.
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