Warning: This story contains details that may disturb some audience members.
A day after strangling his girlfriend and burning her body, Lachlan Young pretended to grieve — then told a friend, “Well, she’s hot now, isn’t she?”
Loved ones of victim, Hannah McGuire, looked on with shock and disgust on Monday as a prosecutor told the Supreme Court in Ballarat of the April 2024 murder and the events leading up to it.
Young, who is set to be sentenced for murder, killed Ms McGuire, 23, at their Sebastapol home before placing her body in her ute and setting it alight in bushland at Scarsdale, staging the scene to look like a suicide.
Lachlan Young faced a pre-sentence hearing on Monday. (ABC: Anita Lester)
Prosecutor Kristie Churchill said Young was “controlling and verbally abusive” throughout the couple’s turbulent relationship, which began in late 2021.
The court heard Young damaged her property, threatened and physically attacker her, and once tried to run Ms McGuire off the road.
Ms McGuire, 23, was finalising plans to leave Young permanently in the months before her death, the court heard.
Young repeatedly demanded she change her mind, texting her: “I can’t let you walk away”.
Days before the killing, Ms Churchill said Young told a friend he planned to “scare” Ms McGuire into reconciling, saying he would drug her and crash her car.
Instead, on April 5, he fatally strangled Ms McGuire in their Sebastopol home, before putting her body in her ute and taking it out into bushland, where he set it on fire.
Young used Ms McGuire’s phone to send fake suicide messages to her mother and deleted security camera footage from the house.
Hannah McGuire’s parents, Debbie and Glenn McGuire, attend the Supreme Court on Monday. (AAP: Joel Carett)
Evidence draws courtroom gasps
The next day, Young was feigning devastation at her “suicide” while being consoled by concerned friends.
Ms Churchill said a friend remarked that Young used to refer to Ms McGuire as “beautiful and hot”.
“The offender looked her in the eye and said, ‘Well, she’s hot now, isn’t she?'” Ms Churchill said.
The comment prompted gasps in the courtroom, with many turning to glare at Young, sitting in the court dock.
Young, who initially maintained his innocence, lied to police and insisted he had nothing to do with her death.
“I would never f***ing harm that girl,” he told police.
Young eventually admitted causing her death, but denied it was murder. Eight days into his trial, he changed his plea to guilty.
On Monday, Ms McGuire’s loved ones packed the courtroom, where 15 victim impact statements were provided.
The court heard Ms McGuire, 23, was studying to become a teacher.
Friends and colleagues paid tribute to the young woman, remembering her as a vibrant personality who lifted others’ spirits.
Her father, Glenn McGuire, described her as “the light of my life”.
“The accused took everything away from her and all of us,” he said.
A floral tribute at the scene where Hannah McGuire’s remains were found. (AAP: Con Chronis)
As a father, Mr McGuire said he was supposed to protect his daughter.
“Instead I had to bury her. I had to pick out a coffin instead of a graduation or wedding dress,” he said.
Her mother, Debbie McGuire, said her daughter was “everything the accused will never be”.
“The hurt I carry every day is so heavy it is crippling,” she said.
“I live with my last message to Hannah being, ‘Come home to mum’ and ‘I love you.'”
Ms McGuire said she hoped Young felt the most “intense pain imaginable” for the rest of his life.
Jaymie McDonald, who was friends with Ms McGuire and Young before the murder, said she feared the day the killer would walk free from prison.
Now aged 23, Young could potentially be released before the age of 50.
“Hannah was brutally murdered by someone who supposedly loved her,” Ms McDonald said.
“He will live alongside us all and get to live a life for himself, yet he has taken Hannah’s.”
The pre-sentence hearing before Justice James Elliott is set down for three days.