By Adam Cooper
A sex worker has tearfully admitted lighting a fire that killed a couple and their baby daughter in a townhouse blaze in Melbourne’s south-west suburbs.
Jenny Hayes on Wednesday pleaded guilty to three charges of arson causing death over the fire at a Point Cook property on December 2, 2020, that killed Abbey Forrest, 19, Inderpal Singh, 28, and their three-week-old daughter, Ivy.
Abbey Forrest, Inderpal Singh and their baby daughter Ivy.
Hayes sobbed as she entered a plea of guilty to each charge while on a video link from prison before the Supreme Court, as family members of the victims watched the online hearing.
Forrest and Singh moved in to the Totem Way townhouse in the weeks before the blaze, around the time of Ivy’s birth.
Neighbours who saw the fire frantically tried to hurl an axe and throw rocks through a jammed upstairs window when they heard screams for help. The young family couldn’t be saved.
Hayes last year pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and was to stand trial, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charges after negotiations between her lawyers and prosecutors.
The aftermath of the fatal fire in Point Cook.Credit: Paul Jeffers
Judicial registrar Tim Freeman vacated the trial when the woman pleaded guilty to the lesser charges, which carry a maximum of 25 years in prison.
Arson causing death is a charge similar to manslaughter, where an accused did not intend to cause someone’s death, and applies to a fire being deliberately lit.
Jenny Hayes has pleaded guilty to three charges of arson causing death.Credit: Nine News
Freeman remanded Hayes in custody to a plea hearing in November.
In the days after the fire and Hayes’ arrest, her son told media his mother had sent him a text message saying she had done “something stupid” by lighting a fire on the ground floor of the townhouse.
Hayes lit the fire as part of a dispute with a man she visited to provide sexual services, son Harley said, but she didn’t know there was anyone upstairs.
Police have confirmed Hayes didn’t know the couple and their baby.
Hayes is to return to court on November 7.
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