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A killer has been jailed for 28 years for murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hannah McGuire and burning her body in a brutal attack in regional Victoria.
Lachlan Young, 23, looked straight ahead as justice James Elliott handed down the sentence in the supreme court in Ballarat on Tuesday.
Young will be eligible for parole after 22 years and four months.
He had initially denied murdering McGuire, claiming the 23-year-old’s death was a spontaneous incident as he took the case to trial.
But after eight days of evidence before a jury, Young admitted he strangled McGuire in the bathroom of their Sebastopol home at about 2.30am on 5 April 2024.
He then shoved her body into the footwell of her Mitsubishi Triton, drove it to remote bushland in Scarsdale and set the vehicle alight.
As he left the scene, Young used McGuire’s phone to send messages to her mother, Debbie, claiming she was going to take her life.
He then transferred $2000 from McGuire’s bank account to her mother and $5000 to himself.
Elliott described the killing as brutal and callous in his sentence, and said Young took deliberate deceitful steps to conceal his crimes.
McGuire’s family and friends stared Young down and gasped out “yes” as they learned of her killer’s sentence.
