Australia’s youngest convicted murderer recently found himself back in police custody after a brazen challenge to authorities led to a troubling discovery on his phone. The man, identified only as SLD for legal reasons, was initially imprisoned for the horrific crime he committed at just 13 years old—abducting and killing his three-year-old neighbor, Courtney Morley-Clarke, back in 2001 on the NSW Central Coast.
Following his release in 2023 after spending much of his life behind bars, SLD was placed under stringent surveillance by community corrections officers. These measures were intended to monitor his reintegration and ensure public safety. However, it was during a routine supervision visit to an Optus store on March 20, last year, that SLD casually defied his conditions, boasting to the officers, “Good luck finding anything I do on the phone.”
This defiance quickly raised red flags. Within a week of this encounter, SLD further exposed his contempt for the rules, claiming he could erase his digital footprint, access the dark web, and even expressed a desire to join dating sites with the aim of losing his virginity.
The audacity of SLD’s comments prompted investigators to delve deeper into his activities, ultimately leading to his re-arrest after they uncovered sexually violent images and child abuse material on his device.
“Good luck finding anything I do on the phone,” he said during a supervised visit to an Optus shop.
On two occasions about a week later, he bragged about being able to delete his internet activity, using the dark web and wanting to access dating sites so he could lose his virginity.
These details come from court documents seen by AAP on yesterday after the now 39-year-old pleaded guilty to five counts of breaching his supervisory orders and two charges relating to child abuse material.
While free in the community, he had been barred from using social networking services or dating sites without prior approval.
He was also only permitted to view sexually explicit material on a single pornographic website, but was told not to watch anything involving sexual violence or cruelty towards women or children.
During a subsequent review of his phone, NSW Police found he had breached these conditions.
He was then arrested last April.
Examining his phone, officers found one image of a five-year-old girl naked from the waist down.
They also located 43 images downloaded onto his device showing women in sexually violent situations including being tied up, looking scared or in pain, and having hands placed over their mouths.
One image was titled “the raped virgin”, court documents reveal.
The killer also searched for sexually violent material online, including viewing one video claiming to be of a drugged woman raped in a hotel.
He tried to look for child abuse material by searching for terms like “real child rape” on explicit websites.
He further breached his supervisory conditions by using a fake name to create a Facebook profile and chat with members of the public.
The 39-year-old will be sentenced at Campbelltown District Court next month.
He has already been convicted of a separate breach of his conditions when he approached a mother and her partially undressed child at a beach in Wollongong in October 2023.
He was handed an 18-month jail term and was released last March, weeks before his latest arrest.
The killer has tried to overturn his conviction for that matter in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal with a judgment due on today.
He only recently offered a motive for murdering Courtney: to exact revenge for purported bullying by her brother.
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