Australia's youngest convicted murderer, known legally as SLD, has been rearrested after boasting that police would never discover the content on his phone. The 39-year-old, who spent nearly two-thirds of his life in jail for the 2001 abduction and fatal stabbing of three-year-old neighbour Courtney Morley-Clarke on the NSW Central Coast, was released in 2023 under strict supervision conditions.
Bragging Leads to Rearrest
On March 20, 2025, SLD told supervising officers he had been breaching his conditions, saying, 'Good luck finding anything I do on the phone,' during a supervised visit to an Optus store. About a week later, he bragged about deleting his internet activity, using the dark web, and wanting to access dating sites to lose his virginity. These details emerged from court documents seen by AAP after he pleaded guilty to five counts of breaching supervisory orders and two charges related to child abuse material.
Breach of Conditions
Under his release terms, SLD was barred from using social networking or dating sites without approval and could only view sexually explicit material on a single pornographic website, excluding content involving sexual violence or cruelty. A police review of his phone revealed multiple breaches, leading to his arrest in April 2025.
Officers found one image of a five-year-old girl naked from the waist down and 43 images depicting women in sexually violent situations, including being tied up, looking scared or in pain, with hands over their mouths. One image was titled 'the raped virgin.' He also searched for sexually violent material online, including a video claiming to show a drugged woman raped in a hotel, and attempted to find child abuse material by searching terms like 'real child rape' on explicit websites.
Additional Violations
SLD further breached conditions by using a fake name to create a Facebook profile and chat with the public. He will be sentenced at Campbelltown District Court in June. He had previously been convicted for approaching a mother and her partially undressed child at a Wollongong beach in October 2023, receiving an 18-month jail term and released in March 2025, weeks before his latest arrest. He has sought to overturn that conviction in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal, with a judgment due Wednesday. Recently, he offered a motive for murdering Courtney: revenge for alleged bullying by her brother.
Support services: 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732), National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028, Lifeline 13 11 14, Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for ages 5 to 25).
