By Melissa Cunningham
A man accused of killing Clunes woman Hannah McGuire has pleaded guilty to her murder eight days into a criminal trial into her death.
There were dramatic and emotional scenes at the Victorian Supreme Court in Ballarat on Friday when the court was told the jury was being discharged after Lachlan Young, who was on trial for the murder of his former girlfriend, had decided to change his plea and admit to murdering the 23-year-old educational support worker.
Hannah McGuire, 23, was found dead in April 2024.
Young previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter and not guilty to one count of murder.
On Friday, his lawyer Glenn Casement told the court his client now wanted to plead guilty to the more serious charge of murder.
“Mr Young, you’re charged with ... at Sebastopol in Victoria on the fifth day of April 2024, you murdered Hannah McGuire, how do you plead – guilty or not guilty?” Young was asked.
“Guilty,” Young responded, as he stared straight ahead.
Young will return to court at a later date for sentencing.
As Justice James Elliott discharged the jury, McGuire’s family and friends, who packed into the courtroom, wiped away tears, clapped and embraced.
“I want to thank the jury for your role that you played,” Elliott said to the 13 jurors.
“I said at the outset of the trial, your role is one of the most important civic roles that you can perform for the community.
Hannah McGuire’s parents, Debbie and Glenn, arriving at court on Wednesday.Credit: Justin McManus
“From my observations, you performed ... diligently, and in doing so, served the community of Ballarat and the Victorian community more broadly. Although you haven’t been required to deliver a verdict, you’ve still carried out an important function in leading to this matter being resolved. For that, I thank you.”
In a statement on Facebook, McGuire’s family – who owns the National Hotel in Clunes near Ballarat – acknowledged Young’s guilty plea to murder.
“No other result would have been fitting. All for you Hannah, my sweet girl,” the post read.
“Something tells me, it’s going to be a big night at the Nash.”
On the first day of the murder trial, the court heard Young had told workmate Benjamin O’Keefe days before McGuire’s death that he planned to drug her and crash a car with her unconscious behind the wheel.
The court heard the two men were sitting in Young’s car when Young told O’Keefe he had a plan to “roofie” McGuire to “scare her so she wouldn’t take the house” following the breakdown of their relationship.
Once McGuire had been drugged unconscious, O’Keefe said: “He [Young] wanted to put her in a car and roll her down a hill.”
McGuire’s badly burned body was found in a torched car in bushland by emergency services hours after she was murdered.
O’Keefe admitted to travelling to bushland where McGuire’s body was found in her burnt-out car to give Young a lift home, but said he did not know she was in the ute.
Allegations about Young’s abusive and controlling treatment of McGuire in the lead-up to her death and during their relationship were also aired in court.
These included allegations that he once called her 129 times in less than 24 hours following a break-up, and frequently degraded her, body-shamed her, screamed at her in public and stalked her outside her workplace before trying to run her off the road in his car.
“She was really, really upset; screaming down the phone that Lachlan had waited for her to finish work and he was following her in her car,” her mother Debbie McGuire told the court.
“He was sitting behind her beeping his horn, and would come out beside her into oncoming traffic trying to get her to pull over … [he] was punching the car windows and screaming at her to get out.”
Prosecutors also accused Young of trying to cover up McGuire’s murder by sending a series of text messages purporting to be her, resembling a suicide note to her mother at 3.43am the morning she was murdered.
After being woken by the texts, Debbie McGuire began frantically calling and messaging her daughter before embarking on a desperate search for her.
The prosecution had alleged McGuire was already dead when the texts were sent and her body was inside a ute, which had been set alight in remote bushland.
Debbie’s voice cracked, and she broke down in tears as she read to the court the last text messages she sent to her daughter.
“Come home to mum, Hannah. I love you.”
Lachlan Young has admitted he murdered Hannah McGuire.Credit: Instagram
Her father, Glenn McGuire, also wiped away tears earlier this week as he recounted how he, too, had repeatedly texted his daughter after being woken by his distressed wife just before 4am that day. He then jumped in his car and drove to the house in Ballarat that McGuire had once shared with Young.
Glenn also revealed he had confronted Young about his behaviour towards his daughter while the two were together and said he and his wife were frequently concerned about her safety.
“I don’t feel that Lachie was very nice to Hannah ... [he] didn’t speak nicely [to her] and expected Hannah to do everything,” he told the court.
“I just said [to Young] that it’s not acceptable to speak to – whether it’s Hannah – but girls in general like that.”
Hannah McGuire had been on the cusp of finishing a teaching degree.
Debbie also told the court she had gone with her daughter to collect her belongings following a previous break-up with Young.
She described Young’s demeanour as “scary”, and said he had punched the car as they left, prompting them to call triple zero.
“He was furious and he was yelling,” she said. “Hannah was shaking like a leaf.”
The prosecution told the court last week that on April 4, McGuire went to meet Young at the house they previously shared, arriving about 9.47pm, and she was killed with “murderous intent” some time after 1.50am on April 5.
Young then sent messages to McGuire’s friends in the hours after he killed her.
“Where the f--- is she?” Young had written in a Snapchat message, shown in court, to one of McGuire’s close friends on the morning she was reported missing. “I will start going off my dial if she is not found.”
Later that morning, he had written another message to the same friend, saying: “If anything happens to her, I will destroy this town.”
If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.
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