Sharon Yarnton jailed over attempted murder
A disgraced prison guard is now a prisoner after she was convicted of cooking up a haphazard scheme at a Sydney Maccas to blow up her husband’s ute and kill him. Three young accomplices have also learned their fate for their roles in the plot.
St George Shire Standard
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A disgraced former prison guard accused her ex-husband of abusing her before she haphazardly plotted with her son’s friends to kill him by blowing up his ute.
Sharon Yarnton, 53, was sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment for attempted murder after she cooked up a shocking plan to murder her ex-husband Dean Yarnton.
During a meeting at Caringbah McDonald’s she enlisted Fady Houda, his wife Monique Hayes and their friend Anthony Mouhtaris to help set Mr Yarnton’s Nissan Navara on fire as he slept in it after a boozy dinner with friends.
At the Downing Centre District Court, Judge Jane Culver described the Menai woman’s potentially deadly scheme as “amateurish”.
“Had the plan been successful in burning the victim alive, it would have been excruciating,” Judge Culver told the court.
“The process of dying might have occurred over an extended period of time.”
Yarnton will be eligible for parole in September 2027 after at least 10 years behind bars.
The mother of two was a decorated senior assistant superintendent at Long Bay Jail and had worked in the prison system for 25 years before her shocking downfall.
The court heard Yarnton was enraged when she discovered he had begun a new relationship a year before their marriage ended in 2014.
She arranged a “last supper” with the former couple’s close friends at Merrylands Bowling Club before she attempted to have Mr Yarnton killed as he slept in his ute on the way home.
Yarnton and Hayes texted back and forth before Houda and Mouhtaris attended the scene, doused the ute in petrol and attempted to set it alight.
Mr Yarnton then called triple-0 before confronting his ex-wife, who was hiding in nearby bushland under the pretence of “shitting herself”.
“The victim pushed her up against the car and said ‘what the f*cking hell is going on’,” Judge Culver said.
The court heard Yarnton had claimed Mr Yarnton was abusive and she had loaned money from a bank ostensibly to pay off his gambling debts to loan sharks.
Mr Yarnton denied the claims and the court later heard statutory declarations purportedly written by him confirming his debts were in fact penned by Yarnton.
“According to you I’m a monster, a thief, a gambler, a rapist, an alcoholic and a wife-basher – you know they are all lies,” Mr Yarnton said in a victim impact statement.
“What hurts the most is what you’ve done to my kids – you were prepared to leave them without any parents at all if you had succeeded, if I was dead, and you were in jail.”
Houda and Mouhtaris were both sentenced to at least seven-and-a-half years in jail, with a maximum sentence of 11-and-a-half years.
Houda will be eligible for parole in October 2024, while Mouhtaris will be eligible for release in February 2027 as he was charged three years after his co-offenders.
Hayes will spend at least four years behind bars, with a maximum sentence of six years, and will be eligible for parole in March 2023.
