Wednesday 17 August 2022 02:46 AM Karl Stefanovic on Henry Hammond's potential release after killing Courtney ... trends now

Karl Stefanovic said he 'feels sick' about the prospect of a killer walking free a little over a year after he was sent to a psychiatric hospital.

Daily Mail Australia revealed on Wednesday that doctors at Melbourne's Thomas Embling Hospital doctors want to let Henry Hammond out on supervised day leave, three years after he bashed Melbourne woman Courtney Herron, 25, to death in May 2019.

Hammond, a 27-year-old homeless man, attacked Ms Herron so savagely that a mortician could not put her broken body back together. 

In March 2020, Supreme Court of Victoria Justice Phillip Priest told Hammond he would be moved from Port Phillip Prison to Thomas Embling Hospital for what 'could' be the next 25 years. 

Justice Priest further told the community Hammond would not be reviewed for early release for at least 24 months. 

Hammond was found not guilty of her murder because of mental impairment. 

But he could be released on day trips soon.

'Can I tell you I don't want to see his face, it makes me sick,' Stefanovic said during an interview on Wednesday with Ms Herron's father and criminal lawyer John Herron. 

'I am shocked this could take place and if it was my child I don't know what I would do.' 

Hammond was brutally bashed by another patient inside Thomas Embling just before Christmas last year. 

A well-placed source said the savage beating left Hammond in hospital, which in turn saw him transferred to Thomas Embling's 'transition unit' on return. 

The unit facilitates patients' day releases and prepares them for imminent release. 

It is understood Hammond impressed staff within the unit, which has led to hospital chiefs softening its stance on releasing him temporarily back into the community with a view to setting him free altogether.

Mr Herron told the Today Show he 'wasn't surprised' by the failings of the justice system.

'They call it, the Andrews government, restorative justice, what that really means is processing these killers out onto the street as quickly as possible,' he said.

'There is limited treatment if anything at all.'

He added the supervised day leave being considered for Hammond was 'appalling' as it could mean the killer would be able to visit parks where children often play.

'I fight on behalf of myself and my daughter, and many other families who are in the same situation,' Mr Herron said.

'The other thing is that we're not made aware of it, we're not told he's having this day release and the police aren't told so if anything ever happened who would know?'

Mr Herron earlier lashed out at Victoria's justice system and Premier Daniel Andrews. 

'I have only just discovered (and not officially) that Courtney's killer is being prepared for imminent supervised day release,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 

'This doesn't occur if a prisoner on a supervised order is to serve a nominal 25 year order, as said by the sentencing judge.

'In fact the Office of Public Prosecutors released a statement suggesting that the order could extend beyond that period ... Victoria is all about the perpetrator - there is no protection for victims and a dangerous place for young women. The Andrews regime simply doesn't care.'

Hammond would not be the first killer to walk free from Thomas Embling on day release. Or cut loose in secret. 

Thomas Embling psychiatrists make no secret to Victorian courts that they believe releasing killers back into the community is in the best interests of their rehabilitation. 

However, most Victorian judges believe telling the community - or the killers' victims - about such initiatives is not in the killer's best interest and therefore suppress any trace of it ever happening.

Daily Mail Australia is aware of at least one savage killer found not guilty of murder by way of mental impairment in recent times already allowed back into the community on supervised day release.

Situated in Fairfield across the road from magnificent parkland and the Yarra River, criminally insane patients from Thomas Embling are sometimes known to gather both there and a nearby cafe.

With access to mobile phones and the internet, patients are free to access social media, dating sites and even menace the families of their victims. 

Toni Coscarella, whose parents were brutally killed by her nephew Ross Konidaris, had been repeatedly phoned by him while he was free on day release from Thomas Embling. 

Konidaris pleaded not guilty to the murders of his grandparents on mental health grounds and in 2014 was ordered to be supervised for 25 years at the hospital.

The paranoid schizophrenic was on unsupervised release in September 2019 when he armed himself with a meat cleaver and a pair of scissors to break into homes and cars while high on cocaine. 

He had been granted permission to leave the mental facility on escorted outings just two years after being placed there.