Australia’s youngest convicted murderer who stabbed a toddler through the heart when he was just 13 approached a woman dressing her baby at a beach and asked her: ‘Is dad around?’
The killer, who can only be identified as SLD for legal reasons, faced an appeals bench of three judges via AVL from prison on Wednesday to argue the exchange was innocent – and he should be released from custody again.
SLD, now aged in his late 30s but looking older with a noticeable paunch and greyish-white hair, wore glasses and squinted at the screen, sneering slightly when the court heard evidence about what he did.
The sexual psychopath murdered three-year-old Courtney Morley-Clarke in her bed at her home on the NSW Central Coast and then dumped her body in 2001.
He had been released from jail in 2023, despite experts warning he would commit more violent sexual crimes.
His release orders included one of ‘not associating with children’.
Two months after release, on October 24, 2023 SLD went to Bulli Beach near Wollongong south of Sydney and approached three different women who had young children.
Aged 13, SLD stabbed neighbour Courtney Morley Clarke, 3, through the heart as she slept on her bed. He is now back before court on child abuse material charges
The scene at Point Clare in 2001 after toddler Courtney Morley-Clarke was stabbed to death in her bed and 13-year-old neighbour SLD eventually led police to her body
He later claimed in court that he was trying to achieve his dream of losing his virginity.
He approached two mothers at the Wollongong beach with their young daughters and asked: ‘Hi, I just got out of jail. Do you come here often?’
SLD was wearing an electronic monitoring anklet and accompanied by his parole supervisor, but was unaware that an off-duty prison officer was coincidentally there at the time and spotted his ankle bracelet.
The officer watched SLD approach a woman feeding an infant at the Bulli Beach cafe and speak with her and then another from behind as she dressed her 15-month-old son.
The court heard SLD asked the young mother if she knew how to turn on the shower for washing feet, which she answered and then turned back to dressing her son.
SLD then continued to speak with the women, commenting about the red marks on her young son’s skin, asking if they were chickenpox.
The woman replied: ‘No, they are just mosquito bites.’
SLD continued questioning her as she dressed her son, saying: ‘Is dad around?’ When the woman replied, ‘yes, he is’, SLD responded: ‘Oh that’s good, I guess.’
SLD approached three women at Bulli Beach, asking one about the infant son she was dressing and then asking her if the child’s ‘dad is around’
SLD was then interrupted by the prison officer, Lucas Clark, who confronted him, saying: ‘I have watched you approach three separate women with their children and try to speak to them. You know you can’t do that.’
Police arrested SLD, who told Wollongong Local Court the next day the encounters were ‘incidental’.
At the time, Magistrate Darryl Pearce refused him bail because ‘he must have been aware there were children’.
‘This is bulls***,’ SLD exploded in court at the time.
‘You’re basically calling me a paedophile, judge … If I get bashed in prison I am going to sue you, dog, if I get bashed, you’re f***ed.’
SLD claimed his approach to the women had been because he was intent on losing his virginity immediately upon his release.
He was sentenced to 13 months and 13 days in December 2024 at Wollongong District Court after he was found guilty of approaching the woman at the showers.
The scene at Point Clare on the NSW Central Coast after three-year-old Courtney Morley Clarke’s body was found dumped and police then arrested neighbour SLD, then aged 13
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He has remained in custody since, but has now launched his fresh bid for freedom.
SLD’s lawyer, public defender Nicholas Broadbent SC, argued that although SLD was in proximity to the child, he was engaging with the child’s mother and had no verbal, non-verbal or physical interaction with the boy.
During the extensive arguments, SLD, who was muted from interrupting, sat with his elbows on a desk, clasping and unclasping his hands and at one point putting up his hand to interrupt.
Their Honours said the original trial judge had found SLD was in immediate physical proximity to a child, that the contact had been ‘more than momentary, more than fleeting’ and that ‘association includes being in company’.
SLD has previously admitted to possessing child abuse material less than a month after he was released from prison.
He was first jailed for stabbing little Courtney Morley-Clarke in her bed in January 2001 at Point Clare on the NSW Central Coast.
He carried her body into long grass nearby and led police on a wild goose chase while they frantically searched for her.
Courtney’s remains, clothed in only a nappy, were found down an embankment after SLD led police to the crime scene and took credit for the atrocity.
He spent more than 20 years in jail before his release, but then returned for the alleged breaches at Bulli Beach and possessing child abuse material.
The Court of Criminal Appeal reserved its final decision to a later date.
