Grim warning from lawyer dad of Courtney Herron who was brutally killed in a Melbourne park about Australia’s justice system: ‘Chaotic’

A week after thousands took to the streets to protest violence against women, the father of a young woman brutally killed almost five years ago has called for changes to the ‘chaotic’ criminal justice system.

Twenty-eight women have been violently killed since the start of the year, according to data from advocacy group Destroy the Joint’s project Counting Dead Women.

John Herron’s daughter Courtney was killed in 2019 at Melbourne’s Royal Park by Henry Hammond, who beat her to death with a branch for 50 minutes in the early hours of Saturday, May 25.

He dragged Ms Herron’s body into a clearing, covered it with leaves and a tree branch, and placed a large piece of concrete on her face.

Ms Herron’s body was found by dog walkers a few hours later.

She was just 25 years old at the time.

Hammond was found not guilty of murder because he had schizophrenia at the time he killed Ms Herron.

He was instead ordered to complete a 25-year custodial supervision order in a psychiatric facility.

On Friday, Mr Herron, who works as a country lawyer and assists victims of domestic violence and their families, criticised politicians for their lack of action in preventing violence against women.

He said a raft of changes to the criminal justice system were required, including law reform, support for victims, stricter bail laws, and administration of intervention orders.

‘The system is chaotic, it’s on the verge of collapse,’ Mr Herron said.

‘It’s not doing what it’s supposed to do to protect women.’

Mr Herron said intervention orders were often abused by people so that police and magistrates were swamped with ‘frivolous or minor intervention orders’.

In his experience, he said the frivolous orders were sometimes taken out by an alleged perpetrator of domestic violence against a victim.

‘It’s very common that these women are absolutely bewildered that the abuser or perpetrator is able to have orders on them,’ he said.

Mr Herron called for stricter bail laws and said in most cases when women had been killed, the perpetrators had previously been brought to the attention of authorities.

His daughter’s attacker, Hammond, had been on a community corrections order at the time he killed Ms Herron.

Mr Herron said the lead-up to the five year anniversary of his daughter’s death was an ’emotional time’.

‘With people in my situation, anniversaries really hit you very hard,’ he said.

‘When you’re thinking about your daughter every day, it just rams it home.’

Mr Herron said his daughter’s birthday had recently passed.

‘She would have been 30,’ he said.

‘There’s no turning the clock back, you just don’t get to see them anymore.’

Mr Herron said he would continue fighting for justice and helping others.

‘I have to keep going because who else is going to speak up?’

‘I help other people because they don’t have any help.’

Mr Herron’s comments come after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared violence against women a ‘national crisis’.

The government announced this week that it would invest $925m over five years to help women escape violent relationships and introduce new legislation to ban deepfake pornography as part of a suite of measures in a bid to combat gendered violence.