DAD'S HEARTBREAK: 'WHERE'S THE JUSTICE FOR MY GIRL?'

JOHN HERRON IS DETERMINED TO GIVE COURTNEY A VOICE AFTER HER LIFE WAS TRAGICALLY CUT SHORT

- Megan Rowe

Last month, John Herron should have been celebrating his precious daughter Courtney’s 27th birthday with her.

Instead, the father-of-three watched helplessly as the man who confessed to brutally bludgeoning his eldest child to death was cleared of murder.

Henry Hammond, 28, was homeless when he killed aspiring social worker Courtney with a tree branch, before hiding her body in Melbourne’s Royal Park very early on May 25, 2019.

Courtney’s injuries were so severe, the mortician struggled to put her broken body back together before she was buried – leaving her family unable to see her to say their final farewells.

But last month, Hammond was found not guilty of murder because of mental impairment, with the court ruling he was in the grips of a schizophrenic relapse. He was ordered to spend 25 years in a psychiatric hospital.

John, 60, a powerful advocate against gender-based violence, says he fears Hammond, who is originally from Sydney but was living nomadically in Victoria, will apply for a review and be granted release within five years – free to kill again.