A callous murderer who strangled his ex-girlfriend, destroyed her remains and then tried to stage her death as a suicide has been jailed for 28 years.

Lachlan Young, 23, ignored a packed Ballarat courtroom, instead staring straight ahead as Victorian Supreme Court Justice James Elliott sentenced him on Tuesday.

It was eight days into his trial before Young finally admitted he murdered Hannah McGuire on April 5, 2024, in a home they owned together at Sebastopol, 120 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.

Young told prosecutors that he and McGuire had argued. He followed her into the bathroom, where he pushed her onto the ground and strangled her.

He then shoved her body into the footwell of her Mitsubishi Triton, drove it to remote bushland in nearby 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.

Young’s steps to deflect blame and stage the victim’s murder as a suicide were cold and calculated, Elliott said.

“They were utterly disrespectful to the memory of Hannah McGuire,” he said.

Elliott noted the brutal murder followed months of abusive, intimidatory and domineering behaviour from Young towards McGuire.

She had taken out intervention orders against the 23-year-old and complained to police but he refused to accept she wanted to separate, Elliott said.

“There is no doubt you acted with a sense of entitlement,” he said.

“This is another case of a man using violence and his superior strength to murder a vulnerable woman who trusted him.”

Lachlan Young pleaded to Hannah McGuire’s murder eight days into his trial.

For sentencing purposes, Elliott accepted Young did not intend to kill McGuire when he strangled her, rather he had intended to cause really serious injury.

But he found that did not significantly reduce Young’s moral culpability, nor did his age, troubled upbringing and substance abuse issues.

Elliott accepted that Young had ultimately pleaded guilty, which warranted some reduction on his sentence, but noted the case still went to trial.

Besides his plea, there was no real evidence of remorse for killing a vulnerable woman who was loved by so many, Elliott said.

“The level of emotion and heartache you have caused … cannot be overstated,” he said.

“[McGuire] was obviously a very special, warm, talented, giving and thoughtful person who lived her life with the interests of those around her at the forefront.”

Hannah’s parents Debbie and Glenn were among the more than 80 people in the courtroom who turned and looked at Young as his 28-year jail term was announced.

There were gasps of “yes” but Young, dressed in all black, stared straight ahead at the judge.

He will be eligible for parole after serving 22 years and four months.

Outside court, Debbie McGuire said she was relieved her daughter’s killer had finally been sentenced.

“While nothing can bring back what we’ve lost or erase the pain we continue to carry, today’s outcome is an important step in our journey towards healing,” she said.

“We want to express our heartfelt gratitude to our family, friends and the community for their unwavering support over the past 19 months.

She also asked for privacy for the family to continue to rebuild their lives.

“As you can appreciate, this has been an incredibly difficult ordeal. We now need time together as a family to process today’s result.”

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–AAP