'My last memory of my daughter is her hug. Then she was killed by a stranger in a park.'

Courtney Herron's father remembers his daughter as a creative child who spoke two languages and was, above all else, kind.

The rest of Australia, however, will remember the 25-year-old's face because of the violent way she died.

Her body was only identifiable via her fingerprints, because a man named Henry Hammond subjected her to 50 minutes of vicious abuse with a tree branch in the middle of a dark Melbourne park in May 2019.

John Herron has been fighting for justice for his little girl ever since her murder, and is now focused on advocating for other women.

"If I had a moment to reflect, I don't know whether I could survive," he told Mamamia's True Crime Conversations.

"People deal with grief differently. Grief has stages."

Listen to John Herron on True Crime Conversations below. Post continues.

John wants Australia to know about his creative, compassionate and smart daughter.

"She was a very creative, effervescent child. She loved to explore and learn new things," he said, adding that his fondest memory was "probably the last time she hugged me".

"She spoke two languages when she was two and three years old. She was a sensitive little girl because she was the firstborn."

A chance meeting, a life taken.

Courtney met Hammond for the first time just hours before she died.

The 27-year-old homeless man approached her group of friends and asked for a cigarette in Melbourne's CBD on a Friday night.

Courtney invited him back to a mate's place to smoke ice. Then she bought him dinner.

They left together at 4:30am, and walked through Royal Park in the city's north. Courtney's body was found around 9:25am by dog walkers.

News of a "murdered woman" exploded all over Australian TV screens and newspapers, but John wasn't informed of Courtney's death until the next day, Sunday.

The spot where Courtney Herron's body was found, adourned with flower tributes. Image: AAP/David Crosling.

"I got a knock on the door from the homicide squad. It would have been about 9:30am," John said.

"When they said who they were, I assumed it was something to do with my work as a lawyer.

"The only thing [they said] that was specific, was that she died of a horrendous bashing. [At that stage] they were still on the hunt for the killer."

By Monday morning, John was in a courtroom — not an unfamiliar place to him — and watched on as his daughter's alleged killer was remanded in custody.

"You're in a bit of a daze," John said of that time.

"The other thing you keep thinking, and I talk to a lot of other people about this, is you just wish it wasn't happening, and you just hope that it was a nightmare that you could wake up from."

John had no idea who the man being accused of taking his daughter's life was, as he sat in the courtroom. Years later, he learnt Hammond's parents were actually old friends — they'd even attended his wedding in the 1980s.

Hammond was found not guilty by a judge due to mental impairment. Image: Facebook.

As Courtney's family followed the case through court, they found themselves let down, traumatised and forgotten within the system.

"The thing that people want most is some type of grief counselling and support, and that's very sporadic at best," John explained.

At one point, while trying to access support, he recalled being told to "call men's helpline."

As is the case for many families of murder victims, John didn't find out a lot of the details of his daughter's death, or her killer's history, until he was either sitting in a courtroom or he'd dug up the information himself using his contacts as a lawyer.

"They're just trying to process you out with as little resistance as possible. As far as details go, we didn't know anything."

In time, John found out that Hammond had only been out of prison for seven weeks, after a violent assault on an ex-girlfriend, when he killed Courtney.

In police interviews, Hammond said he killed Courtney because she had "wronged him in a past life, killed his wife and he was getting revenge."

He was diagnosed with schizophrenic relapse and possible delusional disorder, so his defence successfully argued mental impairment.

Hammond was found not guilty. Instead of prison, he received a nominal 25-year supervision order in the psychiatric hospital Thomas Embling.

Courtney was murdered in Melbourne in 2019. Her dad will not stop sharing her story. Image: Facebook.

John believes the case was "rushed through" the system.

"Her trial lasted 15 minutes. Courtney's trial took less time than what it took to kill her," he said.

"There was palpable nervousness in the court, they just wanted to get it out and they wanted as little media attention as possible."

Courtney's family also wasn't entitled to give victim impact statements, due to the nature of the sentence, a fact that added salt to the wound.

John has been keeping a close eye on Hammond and the hospital where he's been ordered to serve time..

"It's a quasi holiday camp," he said.

Explaining the way the 25-year supervision order works, John explained, "nominal means it's not fixed, and the average time in there is about five years. Probably five people have done the 25 years, and they don't want to be released anyway because the conditions are quite good."

Conditions include unsupervised time in the community, coffee runs in the morning, local jobs and mobile phones, to name a few.

"He [Hammond] was out. He got photographed at a restaurant Courtney and I used to go to in Northcote," John said.

In November 2024, Hammond's lawyer tried to get a suppression order — an attempt that John helped thwart.

"Suppression orders are the first step to release, because when there's a suppression order it means that you can't report. So if he gets released, there's no record of it."

'There was just so much grief there.'

John worked with victims of crime, and specifically victims of men's violence, long before his daughter's murder.

But her death crystalised his path — and a way for him to continue to help in her name.

"I've realised the best use of my time is to help people out pro bono that are going through the same thing, because they're bewildered and they've got a system shunting them away," he said.

Watch: John Herron on why violence against women is not slowing down. Post continues below.

Up until a few years ago, John was getting calls from all across Australia.

But it became too much.

"There was just so much grief there," he said.

He still helps families, just not as many. Over time, he's seen some good improvements, like, "a good societal shift against violence against women across the board where it's just not tolerated."

But it's not enough, and as John pointed out, "The only meaningful reform done since Jill Meagher's murder is that these people are released earlier and more frequently."

One thing he's proud of is that his daughter's voice hasn't been lost in all of this.

The media was quick to publish stories about Courtney's troubled relationship with drugs and alcohol — one that had seen her distance herself from her family, and even enter psychiatric care a few months before her death.

But John has made sure that's not the only thing we remember.

"She's a name we say. She's in the ether," he said.

He's hopeful that, in continuing to talk about her, Australia will remember her for the kind, gentle person she was.

"She'd give her last five dollars to someone if somebody needed it. That was always how she was growing up, and her kindness always shone through," he said.

Feature image: Supplied.