An insecure thug who blew his chances with a beloved teacher’s aid lured her to her gruesome death against her best instincts.
Hannah McGuire, 23, was terrified of her estranged partner Lachlan Young, then aged 21, when he strangled her in the bathroom of their home and torched her body to make it look like a suicide.
While faking sadness at his ex-partner’s supposed suicide, his cousin remarked to Young that he used to refer to her as ‘beautiful and hot’.
Buck toothed, scrawny and sporting mullet, Young looked her in the eye and remarked: ‘Well, she’s hot now, isn’t she?’
Gasps echoed through the courtroom as those details were heard for the first time.
What remained of Ms McGuire’s body weighed just 13kgs after fire had ravaged her remains.
On Monday, those who loved Ms McGuire packed into the Supreme Court of Victoria in Ballarat, in Victoria’s west, for a preliminary sentence hearing.
Young had pleaded guilty to Ms McGuire’s murder in July eight days into his trial.
The cold blooded killer had tormented Ms McGuire’s friends and family since April 5 last year with a twisted story he cooked-up claiming she had suicided by fire over the thought of losing him.
Hannah McGuire knew Lachlan young was bad but didn’t know how to escape his grip
In reality, Ms McGuire was doing everything she could to get away from her deranged and abusive partner.
On the night he took her life, Ms McGuire made the fateful mistake of once again trying to appease the bully who she had reluctantly bought a home with in March the previous year.
It was the same home at 8 King Drive, Sebastopol – just outside of Ballarat – where she would die.
Crown prosecutor Kristie Churchill told the court Ms McGuire had shared at meal with friends at the hotel her parents owned in Clunes on the night she would die.
By then, Ms McGuire had already made it clear to Young their relationship was over.
She had more than valid reasons.
Young had monstered her almost from the day they hooked-up towards the end of 2021.
He hadn’t even tried to hide his contempt for Ms McGuire, abusing her routinely in front of friends and family.
Parents of Hannah McGuire, Debbie McGuire (left) and Glenn McGuire (right) arrive at the Supreme Court of Victoria in Ballarat on Monday
Lachlan Young was a twisted loser and thug who never deserved a second in the presence of Hannah McGuire
‘F**k off, Hannah, you don’t know anything,’ he was observed telling her.
In June 2023, one of Ms McGuire’s friends overheard Young talking to her on a Facetime call.
‘You’re a fat whale,’ he told her.
Young called Ms McGuire a ‘fat slut’ and told her to ‘work faster and cook me dinner.’
By then, Ms McGuire had already made her mind up to leave him, but was struggling to work out how to safely escape the vicious bully.
She’d obtained an intervention order against him in February that year, but knew it was not worth the paper it was printed on.
The court heard Young tormented Ms McGuire with endless calls, stalked her and performed burnouts outside a house she had moved into.
Despite his behaviour, Ms McGuire continued an on-again-off-again relationship with her abuser whose behaviour only became more erratic.
The Sebastopol home where Lachlan Young murdered Hannah McGuire
The burnt section of bushland where Young torched the body of Ms McGuire
In the month before her murder, Ms McGuire moved back in with her parents and was forced to climb through a window of her old home to retrieve personal items.
On March 28, Young took to Ms McGuire’s car with an angle grinder, removing a canopy he claimed he had paid for.
In the safety of her parents’ pub, Young told Ms McGuire via text he wanted to see her one last time so that they could part in an amicable fashion.
‘I don’t want to fight or be angry or anything,’ he told her.
‘I’m not going to get angry. I’m over being angry. I just want everything finalised and planned out.’
Little did Ms McGuire know Young had already made plans to do horrible things to her.
The court heard Young had asked a mate to help him drug Ms McGuire.
‘The offender told him that he wanted to roofie Hannah, drive her out somewhere, put her behind the wheel, and make the vehicle crash while she wasn’t conscious,’ Ms Churchill said.
Hannah McGuire and Lachlan Young upon buying their home. She had already been trying to leave him when she took the plunge
Lachlan Young murdered his ex-partner and attempted to pass it off as a suicide
‘He said he wanted to scare the deceased so she would not take his house and his things.’
Ms McGuire told her parents she was heading into Ballarat to attend going away drinks for her friend.
But there were no drinks organised.
It was a ruse for Ms McGuire to visit Young without them knowing where she was going.
For a while the pair seemed to get along, but by 1.50am Ms McGuire’s friend received a disturbing image that showed her in a state of distress lying on a bed.
At 2.30am Ms McGuire fled to the bathroom where she was assaulted by Young.
‘He started pushing and shoving Hannah McGuire before throwing her to the bathroom floor,’ Ms Churchill said.
‘Then, with the intent to kill, the offender put his hands around Miss McGuire’s neck and strangled her for some time. (She) lost consciousness and died on the bathroom floor of the home they once shared.’
Hannah McGuire’s murder saw people take to the streets to protest against violence against women
Bombers captain Zach Merrett was among mourners at Ms McGuire’s funeral
The deed done, Young jammed her body into the footwell of her own car before picking up his mate and driving her body into nearby bushland where he torched the car.
Young then went about hiding his crime, claiming his victim took her own life by burning herself alive.
‘I’m sorry, Mum. I thought this was the right decision. I tried to heal and cope with it all, but I’m not OK,’ he texted Ms McGuire’s mother from her dead daughter’s phone.
‘I thought leaving was the best decision. I tried to reconnect with people, and I tried sleeping with someone else to try and help me move on. But I couldn’t do it. I tried messaging Locke, but he doesn’t want anything to do with me now. I’ve sent a message, please check in on him. This is going to break his heart.’
Young’s mate who helped him dump the car knew something was off.
‘Hannah better not have been in that f**king car,’ he told him.
Young told him she was, but that she was already dead.
Young’s ruse was quickly dismissed by police.
Hannah McGuire was loved by everyone who met her
Ms McGuire and Lachlan young in one of their few happy times together
When they came knocking, he made a run for it.
But he continued to deny what he had done.
‘I would never f**king harm that girl,’ he claimed.
In a statement read to the court by the police officer who charged Young, Ms McGuire’s father, Glen McGuire, described his daughter as the ‘light of my life’.
‘She was kind, understanding and full of potential,’ he said.
‘The accused took everything away from her and from all of us. As her father I was supposed to protect her, supposed to be there to guide her … instead I had to bury her.
‘Hannah did not deserve to die, her life mattered and our pain and loss and broken hearts deserve justice.’
Ms McGuire’s friends and family will spend the next day staring down Young as they read their victim impact statements.
