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On June 3 Australia ruled that its youngest convicted m*rderer will remain behind bars after a court heard he had again breached strict supervision orders, accessed compromising underage material, and “boasted” about it.

The man, identified by the court-assigned pseudonym SLD, was sentenced in June 2026 to four years and six months in prison, with a non-parole period of two years and 11 months.

SLD appeared at Campbelltown Local Court in prison greens, brought in by correctional officers, and sat quietly as Judge Paul Johnson dealt with the latest chapter in a case that has haunted the country for 25 years. Many Australians have seemingly run out of patience, with calls for capital punishment flooding the internet.

It all began in January 2001, when SLD, then only 13 years old, pulled three-year-old Courtney Morley-Clarke from her bed on the New South Wales (NSW) Central Coast, and took her away from her loved ones, forever.