Evil killer Christine Lyons jailed for murder of Bendigo mum Samantha Kelly

A WOMAN who ordered the murder of her friend and housemate with the aim of taking custody her four children has been jailed for at least 23 years.

A DESPERATE, barren woman has been jailed for at least 23 years for murdering a mother of four as part of an evil plot to start a family of her own.

Christine Lyons, 47, ordered the murder of her friend and housemate Samantha Kelly with the aim of taking custody of Ms Kelly’s four children.

Lyons had tried unsuccessfully to fatally drug Ms Kelly, 39, in the lead-up to her murder on January 23, 2016.

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In desperation, she ordered her bourbon-swilling layabout husband Peter Arthur to carry out the killing.

He did, bashing her to death in the bungalow she and her children were living in on the Bendigo property she shared with Lyons, her husband and former flame Ronald Lyons, 46.

Following a month-long Supreme Court trial, Christine Lyons was found guilty of murder and attempted murder.

Ronald Lyons, a former aged care nurse, was found guilty of attempted murder and assisting Peter Arthur after the murder.

Christine Lyons will serve a minimum sentence of 23 years. Picture: AAP

He was acquitted of murder.

Arthur and Ronald Lyons got rid of Ms Kelly’s body, with the trio telling police, and anyone else who would listen she had walked out on her kids and never returned.

But it was a story detectives found hard to believe.

Ms Kelly was missing for weeks before her body was finally found, but all fingers had been pointing to the trio in that time.

They were arrested the day before Ms Kelly’s body was discovered. When it was, Christine dobbed her husband in immediately.

Arthur took the fall, begging police to let his wife go.

The self-described ladies’ man said he watched Walker, Texas Ranger DVDs before the killing and drank four cans of Jack Daniels to “get up the Dutch courage” to kill.

A seemingly concerned Ronald Lyons, Christine Lyons and Peter Arthur at the time of Samantha Kelly’s disappearance. Picture: Nicole Garmston

For months he maintained that he, and he alone, was guilty of Ms Kelly’s murder.

He’d even written to Ronald Lyons, apologising that he had become embroiled in the mayhem of a murder investigation.

But when the harsh reality of being locked up for murder started to hit, Arthur changed his story and implicated both his wife and Lyons.

They had all together, he said, agreed that Ms Kelly had to be killed.

They’d plotted for weeks and bungled several attempts at fatally drugging her in the lead-up to the murder.

Arthur said the cruel plot was organised so his infertile wife could take Ms Kelly’s four children and raise them as her own.

Even before she was killed, Christine Lyons had already started calling Ms Kelly’s children by names that she had planned to call her own children if she had any.

Ronald Lyons arrives at the Supreme Court. Picture: AAP

In sentencing on Thursday, Justice Stephen Kaye said the murder was “heartless and thoroughly evil”.

“Samantha was a loving and devoted mother to her children and a much cherished member of her family,” he said.

“You took her life from her. You deprived her the opportunity of raising her children and experiencing the joy and fulfilment of being a part of their lives.”

Christine Lyons was jailed for a maximum of 30 years.

Ronald Lyons was jailed for 12 years and six months. He must serve at least nine years before being eligible for parole.

Peter Arthur, sentenced earlier, is serving a minimum 13-year jail term.

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