Australia's youngest murderer to walk from prison

Australia's youngest ever convicted murderer is about to be released from prison after the court rejected the state government's application to extend his detention, even though he had served his 20-year sentence four years ago.

The offender has spent almost two-thirds of his life in prison after abducting and stabbing his three-year-old neighbor, Courtney Morley-Clarke, when he was 13 years old. Although his sentence ended in 2021, he has been subject to a rare continuing detention order due to concerns about his immature mind, the social adjustment difficulties caused by long-term imprisonment, and the threat he poses to the safety of others.

In 2023, he briefly returned to the community under strict court-ordered supervision. However, during those 95 days, he approached approximately 200 women, including some mothers with young children. One unauthorized interaction—talking to a mother on the beach who was dressing her child—forced him back into custody.

The New South Wales Supreme Court heard an application from the state government to detain him for another year, arguing that he posed an unacceptable risk to the community. Concerns were raised that the man was "highly institutionalized," had experienced a "deeply frozen maturation process," and had been thinking about retaliating against a community corrections officer. Psychiatrists had previously diagnosed the 38-year-old man with a severe personality disorder, which makes him self-centered and lacking in empathy.

Justice Mark Ierace dismissed the state government's application to further detain the killer on Friday. His written reasons are expected to be published later that day. This likely means that Courtney's killer will revert to his previous extended supervision order, requiring him to comply with a pre-determined schedule of movements, avoid using encrypted applications, and other conditions. The maximum duration of that order is five years.

He was taken into custody after snatching the girl from her bedroom on a hot summer night after leaving his foster parents' home on the Central Coast and murdering Courtney that same day. He later told police that he had taken the toddler to a nearby field. "I stabbed her in the heart," the then-teenager said. The boy then led police to a pool of blood on a concrete driveway and a nearby steak knife. Shortly thereafter, the girl's naked and lifeless body was found in waist-high grass.

The sentencing judge described the case of the "extremely disturbing killing of a very young child" as completely inexplicable and brutal. "Disturbingly, he gave an answer during his police interview that suggested that once he had killed one person, he expected it would become easier to kill the next and the one after that," the judge said.