Hannah McGuire’s alleged murderer crashed her car into a tree before torching it, court told

Accused murderer Lachlan Young crashed his former partner Hannah McGuire’s car into a tree before setting fire to it in the early hours of the morning, Young’s workmate told a jury on Tuesday.

Ballarat man Benjamin O’Keefe told a Supreme Court trial that Young had come to his house on the afternoon of April 2, 2024, with a plan to scare 23-year-old McGuire.

According to O’Keefe, Young told him while the two men were sitting in Young’s car that he had a plan to “roofie” McGuire to “scare her so she wouldn’t take the house” following the breakdown of their relationship.

Asked by Crown prosecutor Kristie Churchill what the plan was once McGuire had been drugged unconscious, O’Keefe said: “He wanted to put her in a car and roll her down a hill.”

The court also heard that as part of his alleged plan Young had asked O’Keefe to help him dispose of McGuire’s car.

Young, 23, has admitted he killed McGuire before driving her body to bushland in Scarsdale, 25 kilometres south-west of Ballarat, and setting her car on fire. He has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not guilty to murder.

O’Keefe told the jury he was an alcoholic at the time and had agreed to help Young, but following a conversation with his partner, he had a change of heart and said he was not able to help.

However, the court heard, Young spoke to O’Keefe again on April 4 asking if he could help dispose of McGuire’s car and O’Keefe had agreed. The pair had planned to meet at a street corner close to Young’s Sebastopol house about midnight, jurors were told, but Young had messaged O’Keefe earlier that evening saying “got a bit on tonight”.

The court heard O’Keefe replied: “Does that mean not taking the car tonight?”

O’Keefe said he went to bed and woke to the sound of Young honking the horn of McGuire’s Mitsubishi Triton ute outside his home at 2.53am on April 5. He said Young asked him where they should take McGuire’s car.

“I said, ‘I don’t know,’” O’Keefe said. “And he said, ‘Follow me’ ... I got in my car and I followed him.”

At no point did he see McGuire in her vehicle, O’Keefe told the jury.

The court heard he was trailing Young in his own vehicle when Young crashed McGuire’s car into a tree. O’Keefe said Young was driving slowly enough to not injure himself in the crash and then asked O’Keefe what he should do with the car.

“I said, ‘Dump it, don’t burn it. You get in more trouble for a fire.’” O’Keefe testified.

He told the jury that from the rear-view mirror of his own car he saw Young get a yellow blowtorch. Asked what he did with the blowtorch, O’Keefe said Young set the front seats of the ute on fire. Young paid him $45 after the incident, he said.

The Supreme Court, sitting in Ballarat, earlier heard that Young sent messages to McGuire’s friends in the hours after he killed her threatening to “go off [his] dial” if she were not found.

“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.”

Prosecutors allege Young also tried to cover up Hannah’s murder by sending text messages purporting to be from her and resembling a suicide note, to her mother at 3.43am on April 5.

Several of McGuire’s close friends and colleagues broke down while providing evidence detailing an alleged a pattern of aggression, controlling behaviour and abuse by Young.

The jury heard claims that he would follow the university student on evenings out with her girlfriends, degrade her, body-shame her, scream at her and harass her with texts and phone calls whenever she was away from him.

Tayla Schefferle, who worked with McGuire at a Ballarat primary school, testified she went to work early one morning in March last year and found McGuire distressed.

“I got there, and it was only us two at the time,” Schefferle told the jury. “She approached me, and she just fell into my arms ... She was very upset and distraught.”

Schefferle said McGuire revealed she had broken up with Young and expressed fears about her safety. “She was just afraid that he would do something to her,” the witness said.

Shefferley told the jury that following the break-up McGuire began arriving at work earlier and would park her car in a shed at the school to hide it.

Another colleague and friend, Jaymie McDonald, testified McGuire often contacted her via Snapchat while crying at night after locking herself in the bathroom of the house she shared with Young.

When prosecutor Kristie Churchill asked McDonald if she had observed a change in McGuire after her break-up with Young, she said: “She had found such a glow. She was happy and beautiful and strong and loving.”

In a statement submitted to the court and shown to the jury, McGuire’s childhood friend and hairdresser Caitlyn Stepnell recounted instances in which she alleged Young had abused his former girlfriend on nights out during their relationship.

“Hannah had a few guy friends who would just come up and say hello, and Lachlan would get very aggressive,” Stepnell wrote in her statement. “He would tell the guy friends to F off and don’t speak to her. He would also call them the C-word.”

One colleague told the jury McGuire was as an amazing teacher’s aide who cared deeply about her work and the children she supported.

“The kids loved her,” she wrote in submission read to the jury.

McGuire was on the cusp of finishing her university degree in teaching, and her friends said she was excited about the next chapter in her life when she was killed.

Last week, Young’s lawyer, Glenn Casement, said McGuire’s death was “an unplanned and spontaneous incident”.

The trial continues.

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.