Courtney Konstantina Herron’s death in May 2019 sparked outrage – but almost two years on, little has been done to protect other women or deter perpetrators.

Henry Hammond, 28, who used a tree branch to beat Ms Herron, 25, at Royal Park was found ‘not guilty’ due to mental impairment. Tomorrow is the last trial day for the killer who will be handed a ‘nominal’ 25-year term at the Thomas Embling Psychiatric Hospital, a secure mental health facility.

Lawyer John Herron, Courtney’s father, told Neos Kosmos “psychiatric prisoners can make an appeal to be let out, and the average time spent there is eight years”.

“Hammond, who has access to private legal fees could be out in five years, and many inmates are let out in three,” Mr Herron said. “Sometimes they are subject to suppression orders so you don’t know when they are released. Neither the families or police are notified upon their release. And a big part of their ‘treatment’ is that they are encouraged to have unsupervised leave in the facility. After a few years they can go out.”

Mr Herron is concerned that the same system that failed his daughter may fail another potential victim once her killer is allowed to roam the adjacent parklands.

He refers to the case of Ross Konidaris who gunned down his grandparents and set fire to their home. Found not guilty due to mental impairment, he was sent to a high-security psychiatric facility for treatment and last year used a meat cleaver and knives to threaten homeowners and demand their car keys while on leave before he was arrested.

“If there’s schizophrenia, is there a cure?” Mr Herron asks.

“When people are found not guilty because they have incurable schizophrenia how can you release them again?”

READ MORE: “My daughter died three deaths,” says John Herron about Courtney

Mr Herron said he has seen his daughter die three deaths. “I always say it is like three blows to us, there’s the killing of your daughter which you can’t imagine and then she died a second time when he was let out early and the state kept that from us,” he said. “The third death came when the killer is declared not guilty… She died three times.”

In actual fact, her death could have been prevented had Mr Hammond, who had previously attacked another woman, been kept off the streets. “Her death was entirely preventable,” Mr Herron said.

He is worried that many more women will die many more deaths.

“The only thing that has changed since Courtney died is the government has made it easier for (perpetrators) to plead not guilty,” he said.

READ MORE: ‘Devastating’: Accused for Courtney Herron’s murder found mentally unfit to stand trial

The women’s March4Justice rally on Monday saw tens of thousands of people across Australia take to streets to protest against gendered violence, but it was a day later (16 March) that an omnibus bill was voted in Victoria allowing a ‘not guilty’ verdict to go straight to the judge rather than be decided upon by a jury, with more government changes set to be  passed in June.

“Women are frustrated and angry because their concerns are not being taken seriously. In Victoria, especially, laws are more in favour of the perpetrator,” Mr Herron said.

“Courtney could have been with us today,” he said.