Australia’s youngest killer SLD faces sentencing after breaching supervision orders
WARNING: Disturbing content
Australia’s youngest convicted murderer has spent just 119 days out of prison in the past 25 years as he awaits sentencing for breaching control orders and possessing child abuse material, a court has heard.
The man, who can only be known as SLD, killed three-year-old Courtney Morley-Clarke in January 2001, when she was just 13 years old.
He stabbed the teenager in the heart after dragging her from her bed on the NSW Central Coast, dumping her body in tall grass nearby and leading her on a wild chase as police frantically searched for Courtney.
After more than two decades in prison, he was released on an extended supervision order in 2023; But he was jailed again after violating the order by talking to a woman who was with her child at Bulli Beach near Wollongong on the NSW south coast.
He was sentenced to a further year and a half in prison but was arrested again less than a month after his release in 2025 for breaching a supervision order and possessing child abuse material.
The man was brought to Campbelltown Local Court by corrections officers on Wednesday, donned prison greens and sat quietly as his sentencing continued.
In March, he pleaded guilty to five counts of failing to comply with an extended/interim supervision order, five counts of possessing child exploitation material and five counts of using a car to access child exploitation material.
In court on Wednesday, SLD’s lawyers outlined the effects of the “extraordinary” time he spent in custody.
The killer “grew up in detention” and had spent only 119 days in prison over the last 25 years.
Given that he was imprisoned at age 13, lawyers said he was “more like a teenager in his thinking than an adult.”
His actions and comments therefore “must” be seen through the lens of his custody history, the defense said.
The court was also told the convicted murderer “bragged” about breaching orders and made “unusual” and “worrying” comments about his behaviour.
“In a sense they were bragging about violating the orders, but they also show a high degree of immaturity… setting him up for inevitable arrest,” Judge Paul Johnson said.
The matter was adjourned until Wednesday afternoon, when SLD will hear his sentence.
More to come
