Australia’s youngest killer arrested weeks after prison release

Australia’s youngest killer is back behind bars less than a month after his release, charged with breaching his extended supervision orders and possessing child abuse material.

The man, who can only be identified as “SLD” for legal reasons, served 20 years behind bars for killing three-year-old Courtney Morley-Clarke on the NSW Central Coast in 2001 when he was 13.

Now 38 years old, SLD was released from custody last month on March 15.

The man was arrested again yesterday afternoon in Campbelltown by Sex Crimes Squad detectives along with riot squad officers.

He was taken to Campbelltown Police Station and charged with four counts of breaching his extended supervision order and possessing child abuse material.

He was refused bail and appeared in Campbelltown Local Court today.

There he was formally refused bail and was returned to custody.

SLD’s original murder sentence expired in 2021, but concerns over community safety led to rare post-sentence detention orders.

A brief foray in the community in 2023 on court-ordered close supervision resulted in him approaching about 200 women across 95 days, including several mothers with young children.

One unlawful interaction – talking to a mother dressing her young child at a beach – forced his return to jail.

An application to detain him for a further year was heard in the NSW Supreme Court as the state argued he posed too great a risk to the community.

Psychiatrists previously diagnosed the 38-year-old with a severe personality disorder that made him self-centred and unempathetic.

In March 2025, Justice Mark Ierace dismissed the state’s application to detain the killer further.

SLD entered custody the day he murdered Courtney, having left his adoptive parents’ home on the Central Coast in the middle of a hot summer night before pulling the girl from her bedroom.

He later told police how he took the youngster to a nearby field.

“I stabbed her in the heart,” the then-teenager said.

The boy then directed police to a pool of blood on a concrete driveway and a steak knife lying nearby.

The girl’s naked and lifeless body was found in tall grass soon after.

The sentencing judge described the “exceedingly disturbing killing of a very young child” as utterly inexplicable and cruel.