‘s youngest-ever murderer issued a withering, defiant stare to onlookers as he strode free from prison on Saturday morning – less than 24 hours after a judge dismissed a last-ditch legal bid to keep the child-killer locked up.
The now 37-year-old was just 13 when he murdered three-year-old toddler Courtney Morley-Clarke on the NSW Central Coast in January 2001.
SLD – as he is now known – has been granted lifetime anonymity to prevent the public from being able to identify him despite his horrific crime.
After serving a 20-year sentence, SLD was briefly released in Wollongong NSW in September 2023 before he swiftly returned to custody after breaching conditions.
But with the current interim detention order ending this Saturday, an official bid to keep him in jail was heard in NSW Supreme Court this week.
On Friday, Justice Mark Ierace sparked confusion when he delivered a two word verdict that sparked chaos: ‘Application denied.’
It was initially unclear exactly what was meant by the decision, triggering chaotic scenes as officials clarified that he had refused the NSW Government’s application for extended detention, and was releasing SLD, subject to his original supervision order.
SLD walked free from Long Bay Prison, in Sydney’s inner-south, at 10.18am on Saturday, wearing a red flannel shirt and blue trousers and accompanied by two other men.
He stared down news cameras as they captured his first moments of freedom while walking to a waiting car with his personal effects – and what appeared to be a bundle of legal papers – in a clear plastic bag.
After clambering into the sedan’s back seat next to one of the men, he continued to glare at photographers and other onlookers before he was driven away from the prison.
While SLD did not speak during the last-minute two-day hearing leading up to his release, he did send a chilling warning to his lawyer from his Long Bay holding cell.
On Wednesday morning, his lawyer wished SLD a happy birthday as the killer sat solemnly in front of the video link.
After a brief pause, he bowed his head towards the microphone.
‘Better get out,’ he replied ominously, before returning to the same expressionless pose he maintained throughout the day.
During the hearing, psychiatrists noted that the killer, who is fixated with getting revenge for perceived wrongs, could act violently if he felt he was unfairly treated.
However they also agree that keeping him incarcerated would be detrimental to his mental health and ability to assimilate into the community at a later date.
On Tuesday, Justice Ierace noted that the situation was out of the ordinary.
‘It goes without saying this is a very challenging case, he has been out only in the community for four months since he was only 13 years old,’ he said.
Justice Ierace had options to impose a continuing detention order to keep him behind bars for another 12 months, or granting the extended supervision order.
While there are conditions around his release, SLD has previously admitted that he would be prepared to kill again if something ‘big’ took place.
In a chilling warning, he added: ‘If I kill someone, it won’t be a child.’
His frightening confession and string of violent offences, which includes choking a nurse while jailed, were all considered by Justice Ierace.
After SLD was last released in September 2023, he was back behind bars after just a few weeks later after he was caught approaching women with young children at Bulli Beach in Wollongong, NSW claiming he wanted a date.
He was also found to be accessing pornography online and psychologists warned he had become obsessed with losing his virginity after growing up in jail.
SLD had been adopted at the age of four by a family in Point Clare on the Central Coast, but his murder trial heard he remained ‘disturbed’ despite his new home.
At age 13 years and 10 months, he snatched Courtney from her bed in the middle of the night and stabbed her through the heart before leaving her body in long grass 300m from her home.
He was caught after it was noticed that he had gone missing from his home on the morning the three-year-old vanished.
He initially lied about the crime, leading police on a wild goose chase before later admitting he killed her.
Psychiatric assessments of the teen determined he’d never become a functioning social adult.
He was sentenced in August 2002 to 20 years behind bars but was first released in September 2023.
On October 25, SLD went to Bulli Beach near Wollongong with a supervisor and was spotted by an off-duty prison officer who noticed his electronic monitoring anklet.
The officer witnessed SLD approach a woman with a young girl, and then approach another mother washing an infant at the beach showers.
Both women picked up their children and walked away from SLD.
He then entered the Bulli Beach Café and struck up a conversation with a woman feeding an infant.
He allegedly said to the woman: ‘I just got out of jail. Do you come here often?’, followed by: ‘I’ve only been here twice.’
Police came and arrested SLD, who told Wollongong Local Court the next day the encounters were ‘incidental’.
SLD was found guilty of one count of failing to comply with an extended supervision order, which barred him from having contact with children.
He had also tried to access the internet, dating sites and encrypted chat apps.