EXCLUSIVE
Australia’s youngest-ever murderer to kill a three-year-old girl plans to lose his virginity in the New Year – but prospective partners will remain completely in the dark about his horrific past.
SLD, a sexual psychopath who murdered toddler Courtney Morley-Clarke on the NSW Central Coast in January 2001, has lifelong anonymity preventing the public from linking him to his horrific crime.
Authorities believe he is at high risk of reoffending because of his obsession with finding a girlfriend and starting a sexual relationship after more than 20 years behind bars.
He was due to walk free last week before Judge Mark Ierace postponed his possible release for 28 days and ordered two independent psychiatric assessments.
Despite this, he could still be out and looking for love in January.
The child killer was briefly released on parole in September 2023 and was thrown back behind bars in October after he approached women with young children at Bulli Beach in Wollongong, NSW.
He also tried to access the internet, dating sites and encrypted chat apps.
SLD, now 37, was adopted by a family in Point Clare at the age of four, but despite his new home the boy remained ‘disturbed’.
When he was thirteen years and ten months old, he grabbed Courtney from her bed in the middle of the night and stabbed her through the heart before leaving her body in the long grass.
He was arrested after it was noticed that he had disappeared from his own home on the morning of the kidnapping of the three-year-old child.
Courtney Morley-Clarke was three years old when her 13-year-old neighbor murdered her
SLD interrupted his parole by approaching mothers with children at Bulli Beach in Wollongong
He initially lied about the crime and led the police search on a wild chase before proudly admitting he had killed her.
Psychiatric examinations of the teenager indicated that he would never become a functioning social adult.
He was sentenced to 20 years behind bars in August 2002, but was released in September 2023.
Just weeks after being released from prison, he was arrested again for violating the conditions of his release when he spoke to three women with children.
On October 25, SLD went to Bulli Beach 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 a baby at the beach showers.
Both women picked up their children and walked away from SLD.
SLD tried to access the internet and dating sites (stock image)
He then entered the Bulli Beach Café and struck up a conversation with a woman who was feeding a baby.
After allegedly telling the woman: ‘I just got out of prison. Do you come here often?’ he then said, “I’ve only been here twice.”
Police arrived and arrested SLD, who told Wollongong Local Court the next day the encounters were ‘incidental’.
He was found guilty of failing to comply with an extended supervision order banning him from having contact with children.
Psychiatrists are concerned about the safety of women around SLD after someone noticed the killer was preoccupied with sex and fixated on losing his virginity immediately after his release.
Following a recent hearing in the NSW Supreme Court, Judge Ierace made no ruling on whether SLD would remain in prison.
Instead, he ordered the pre-trial detention order extended and assigned two phycologists or psychiatrists to conduct independent investigations.
The case will return in the new year.