Courtney Herron’s father has spoken about the heartbreak of losing a loved one five years after a man brutally beat his daughter to death.
John Herron said he was in “denial” for the first six months after losing his 25-year-old daughter in the senseless attack in a Melbourne park on May 25, 2019.
Henry Hammond had approached the aspiring social worker for a cigarette before the pair chatted and shared a meal together.
Herron invited him to join her at a friends’ gathering that night before Hammond bludgeoned her to death with a tree branch in Royal Park and tried to hide her body under leaves and branches.
Hammond was found not guilty of murder in 2021 due to his diagnosis of schizophrenia and was ordered to complete a 25-year custodial supervision order at the Thomas Embling Hospital psychiatric facility.
The father of Courtney Herron (pictured together), who was cruelly beaten to death in 2019, criticized lawmakers for continuing to fail to protect women five years after his daughter’s death.
Courtney Herron (pictured) was murdered by Henry Hammond after he approached her and asked for a cigarette on May 24, 2019.
“The thing about grief is that it goes through stages,” Herron said. news.com.au.
‘The first six months you deny it and expect it to be a nightmare. A year and a half later you are stunned.
The only consolation Herron received was a letter from then Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews promising to “do better”.
However, it has been five years since her daughter’s death and Herron believes that hardly anything has changed.
Herron now works as an attorney to represent the families of women whose lives were lost due to violence perpetrated by men.
“I helped a family where their daughter was run over by a domestic violence perpetrator and she called the police for help with three broken ribs,” he said.
‘They accused her and not the perpetrator. Do you think that’s unusual? Because I see it all the time.’
So far this year, 36 women have lost their lives due to sexist violence.
The incident that affected Mr Herron the most was the stabbing at Westfield Bondi Junction which claimed the lives of six innocent people, five of whom were women.
What struck a chord with Mr Herron was seeing the news that knife killer Joel Cauchi, 40, suffered from schizophrenia, as did his daughter’s killer.
‘But as far as Courtney was concerned, she didn’t get justice. But what is justice? he said.
“The first thing all these girls would say is, ‘I don’t want the killer to do it again.'”
After her daughter’s death (pictured), Herron decided to represent the victims’ families in court. He said: ‘Almost all of these women are murdered by someone on bail. Someone who is on the police radar.
Henry Hammond had approached the aspiring social worker for a cigarette before the pair chatted and shared a meal together.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared violence against women a “national crisis” following public outcry over this year’s spate of deaths.
He announced his $925 million government plan to help women, including measures to help them escape violent relationships and ban deepfake pornography.
However, Herron said he did not even watch the National Cabinet meeting because he knew anything the government introduced would be “useless”.
‘Almost all of these women are murdered by someone on bail. Someone who’s on the police radar,” she said.
Having completely lost faith in the people in power, Herron decided to take matters into his own hands and ran for the Justice Party.
“My daughter would have wanted me to fight for her and other female crime victims to ensure that her killer and others were not allowed to perpetrate these crimes in the first place, and to provide appropriate punishment and treatment, so that Victorian society can once again be a functioning democracy,” he told The Guardian at the time.
After failing to win a seat, Herron dedicated himself to representing victims’ families in court.
Her experience has left her with the belief that lawmakers should help women who currently turn to police as the first line of help, despite the risk of angering their abusers, only to receive no help.
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