The notorious criminal responsible for the tragic death of beloved teacher’s aide Hannah McGuire has finally faced justice. In a significant development, the Supreme Court of Victoria in Ballarat sentenced 23-year-old Lachlan Young to 28 years in prison on Tuesday for his appalling crime.

Young will not be eligible for parole until he has served a minimum of 22 years and four months. To date, he has already spent 590 days incarcerated while awaiting this verdict.

The courtroom was filled with an emotional audience of Ms. McGuire’s family and friends, who reacted audibly to the sentence handed down by Justice James Elliott. The announcement prompted audible gasps, reflecting the tension and anticipation that had built up over the course of the trial.

As the judge delivered Young’s fate, McGuire’s loved ones locked eyes with him, expressing a sense of relief and justice with their quiet exclamations of “yes.”

The sentence by Justice James Elliott sparked audible gasps from Ms McGuire’s friends and family, who packed into the courtroom. 

Ms McGuire’s family and friends stared Young down and gasped out ‘yes’ as they learnt of her killer’s fate. 

Dressed in black, the remorseless killer showed little emotion as details of his crime were aired. 

Ms McGuire, 23, had been desperate to be rid of her estranged partner, then aged 21, when he strangled her in the bathroom of their home in a fit of rage and torched her body to make it look like a suicide.

Young maintained his cruel lie for more than a year, all the way up to his Supreme Court of Victoria murder trial.

Ms McGuire had obtained an intervention order against him in February the previous year. 

The court heard Young tormented Ms McGuire with endless calls, stalked her and performed burnouts outside a house she had moved into.

Justice James Elliott told the court Ms McGuire had expressed her concerns about Young to police in a statement before she was murdered. 

‘The last two words of her statement … were, “I’m terrified”,’ he said. 

She had gone to police after Young chased her in his vehicle in what was described as a dangerous pursuit. 

The day before he killed Ms McGuire, Young had expressed his contempt for her to his boss’s wife. 

‘F*** women, they just want to hurt you and milk you dry and … say it was your fault,’ he wrote. 

Justice Elliot condemned Young’s behaviour, branding it a ‘gross breach of trust’. 

‘In sentencing you, the scourge of domestic violence resulting in the death of innocent and defenceless female partners is again to be addressed by the court,’ he said.

‘This case is yet another example of a male using violence and his superior strength to murder a vulnerable woman who trusted him.’

The court heard Young hadn’t even tried to hide his contempt for Ms McGuire. 

‘He spoke to Ms McGuire in the most appalling terms,’ Justice Elliott said. 

‘You often yelled and shouted at Ms McGuire … On one occasion, when you did this in front of friends, while grabbing her arm, shaking her and talking into her face, Ms McGuire was so upset that she called a friend to collect her from the hotel where you were.

‘Suffice to say that your conduct of Ms McGuire intimidated and scared her on numerous occasions. One can only imagine the humiliation you must have caused her.’

Young had pleaded guilty eight days into his murder trial after seeing the writing on the wall.

He had tried to wrangle a sweetheart plea deal from Crown prosecutor Kristie Churchill, who outright rejected any notion of allowing him to plead up to manslaughter.

She and everyone in the court knew Young was a liar who had not only killed the beloved teacher’s aide, but incinerated her body and claimed she had suicided by fire.

The court heard Young killed Ms McGuire after luring her to their home under the guise of ending their relationship in a civilised manner in April last year.

Young claimed Ms McGuire fled to the bathroom, where he assaulted her.

Whether any of that actually ever happened will never truly be known.

Forensic experts had little to work with what remained of Ms McGuire’s mangled remains, which amounted to just 13kg of bone and dust.

Her cause of death could not be ascertained.

After his cousin remarked to Young that he used to refer to Ms McGuire as ‘beautiful and hot’, Young looked her in the eye and replied: ‘Well, she’s hot now, isn’t she?’

What remained of Ms McGuire’s body weighed just 13kg after fire had ravaged her remains.

The cold-blooded killer had tormented her friends and family since April 5 last year with a twisted story he cooked up, claiming she had suicided by fire over the thought of losing him.

In reality, Ms McGuire was doing everything she could to get away from her deranged and abusive partner.

On the night he took her life, Ms McGuire made the fateful mistake of once again trying to appease the bully with whom she had reluctantly bought a home in March of the previous year.

It was the same home at 8 King Drive, Sebastopol – just outside of Ballarat – where she would die.

Young had monstered her almost from the day they got together towards the end of 2021. 

He hadn’t even tried to hide his contempt for Ms McGuire, abusing her routinely in front of friends and family.

‘F*** off, Hannah, you don’t know anything,’ he was observed telling her.

In June 2023, one of Ms McGuire’s friends overheard Young talking to her on a Facetime call.

‘You’re a fat whale,’ he told her.

Young called Ms McGuire a ‘fat sl*t’ and told her to ‘work faster and cook me dinner.’

By then, Ms McGuire had already made her mind up to leave him, but was struggling to work out how to safely escape the vicious bully.

Despite his behaviour, she continued an on-again-off-again relationship with her abuser whose behaviour only became more erratic.

In the month before her murder, Ms McGuire moved back in with her parents and was forced to climb through a window of her old home to retrieve personal items.

On March 28, Young took her car with an angle grinder, removing a canopy he claimed he had paid for.

In the safety of her parents’ pub, Young told Ms McGuire via text that he wanted to see her one last time so they could part in an amicable fashion.

‘I don’t want to fight or be angry or anything,’ he told her.

‘I’m not going to get angry. I’m over being angry. I just want everything finalised and planned out.’

Little did Ms McGuire know, Young had already made plans to do horrible things to her.

The court heard Young had asked a mate to help him drug Ms McGuire.

Ms McGuire told her parents she was heading into Ballarat to attend going-away drinks for her friend.

But there were no drinks organised.

It was a ruse for Ms McGuire to visit Young without them knowing where she was going.

For a while, the pair seemed to get along, but by 1.50am, Ms McGuire’s friend received a disturbing image that showed her in a state of distress, lying on a bed.

At 2.30am, Ms McGuire fled to the bathroom, where she was assaulted and strangled by Young.

Young jammed her body into the footwell of her own car before picking up his mate and driving her body into nearby bushland where he torched the car.

He then went about hiding his crime, claiming Ms McGuire took her own life by burning herself alive.

‘I’m sorry, Mum. I thought this was the right decision. I tried to heal and cope with it all, but I’m not OK,’ he texted Ms McGuire’s mother from her dead daughter’s phone.

‘I thought leaving was the best decision. I tried to reconnect with people, and I tried sleeping with someone else to try and help me move on. But I couldn’t do it. I tried messaging Locke, but he doesn’t want anything to do with me now. I’ve sent a message, please check in on him. This is going to break his heart.’

Ms McGuire’s family are expected to make a statement outside court.