Pre-sentencing hearing of Hannah McGuire's killer

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Transcript

00:00The week has begun with heartbreaking scenes inside the Supreme Court in Ballarat, where the

00:04family of Hannah Maguire came face to face with her killer, Lachlan Young. The 23-year-old woman

00:09from Clearance was brutally murdered by her ex-boyfriend in April of 2024, and on Monday,

00:15Hannah's family confronted the man who took her life, delivering raw emotional impact statements

00:19to the court. Hannah's father, Glenn Maguire, described his daughter as the light of his life.

00:25He said the accused took everything away from her and from all of us. He spoke of the pain of having

00:30to choose a coffin instead of a graduation or a wedding dress, saying, I will never hear her laugh

00:35again. I will never get a simple I love you, dad. Her mother, Debbie Maguire, locked eyes with Young

00:41as she spoke. She told the court, Hannah was more than just my daughter. She was my best friend.

00:46He treated her like discarded trash. He even sat for a moment to watch her burn. She added that she

00:51screamed so loudly when she learned that her daughter was gone that it echoed across the town.

00:56Her last words to Hannah were, come home to mum, I love you. 15 family and friends shared statements

01:02with the court, with Hannah's loved ones asking for justice and expressing the pain that they will

01:07carry for the rest of their lives. Crown prosecutor Christy Churchill said that Hannah's last moments

01:11would have been filled with terror as Young took her life. The prosecutor described the murder as

01:16motivated by male entitlement, jealousy and rage. She called it expressive of the worst kind of male

01:22attitudes towards women. During the July trial, we learned that after he killed Hannah, Lachlan Young

01:28placed her body in the rear footwell of her Mitsubishi Triton, drove the car out to bushland in

01:34Scarsdale and set both her and the car on fire. He then faked suicide messages from her phone and

01:39transferred himself $5,000. Miss Churchill said that Young's actions after the murder denied Hannah of any

01:45dignity, even in death. She said that Hannah was killed in her own home where she was entitled to

01:52feel safe and urged the judge to impose a lengthy prison sentence. Tuesday's proceedings also included

01:57a rare addition from the judge who requested a moment of silence for Hannah. The packed courtroom bowed

02:02their heads in her memory, but strikingly Young kept his head up and his eyes forward. His lack of

02:07remorse has been evident throughout the proceedings and was a subject of a lengthy conversation between

02:11the prosecution, defence and the judge on Tuesday. Justice Elliott will now consider the arguments

02:16from both sides as well as the victim impact statements before delivering the final sentence.