By Tara Cosoleto
A man who bludgeoned his grandmother to death should be released as soon as possible, a Supreme Court judge has urged the parole board.
Hayden Kidd, 22, believed Shirley Kidd was his abusive former stepfather when he attacked her with a garden pick at her home in Darley, Bacchus Marsh, in May 2022.
Shirley Kidd was killed by her grandson Hayden Kidd in May 2022.
He was initially on trial for murder, but the jury was discharged after two psychiatrists found he did not have the intent to kill because of his psychosis. Kidd instead pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
On Thursday Justice Michael Croucher described the case as horrible as he sentenced Kidd to five years behind bars.
Kidd will be eligible for parole after 2½ years, but he has already served just over two years in pre-sentence detention.
Croucher made an unusual request to the Adult Parole Board to release Kidd as soon as he was eligible, saying there was a risk he would be institutionalised in custody.
Hayden Kidd arrives at the Supreme Court in June.Credit: AAP
In his sentencing remarks, the judge detailed the years of sadistic abuse Kidd suffered at the hands of his former stepfather. The man burned Kidd with a cigarette lighter, choked him and tried to drown him in a toilet, all while he was a young boy.
Kidd started living with his grandparents on and off from 2015, seeing their home as a sanctuary away from the violence he had experienced. On the night of the killing, he smoked cannabis on the verandah before heading to bed.
He woke in a drug-induced psychosis and went to his grandmother’s bedroom, where she was sleeping alongside his seven-year-old cousin.
Believing the boy was his younger self and his grandmother was his abusive stepfather, Kidd picked the seven-year-old up and carried him away to the garage.
His grandmother chased after him and he confronted her with a garden pick, striking her four times to the head in front of the young boy.
Kidd left the weapon lodged in his dead grandmother’s head he as left the garage, telling his grandfather as they crossed paths that he would “sleep well tonight”.
Croucher found Kidd was in an “utterly deluded state” and he acted on his “confused misidentification”.
The judge determined that as a result of his psychosis, Kidd’s moral culpability for the killing was very low or almost non-existent. He also took into account Kidd’s young age, his lack of prior convictions and the clear remorse he held.
A police officer at the scene of the killing in Darley, Bacchus Marsh, in 2022.Credit: Penny Stephens
Reports from a psychiatrist and Corrections Victoria noted Kidd was at risk of institutionalisation in custody.
Croucher said he considered that risk, as well as the additional punishment Kidd experienced for killing a beloved family member.
“I know there’s nothing this court can do or say to lessen [the Kidd family’s] grief,” the judge said. “The sentence imposed does not reflect [Shirley Kidd’s] life.”
Kidd closed his eyes as he was handed his jail term.
Members of the Kidd family declined to speak to the media as they left the court.
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