A killer has been jailed for 28 years for murdering his ex-girlfriend and burning her body in a brutal attack.
Lachlan Young, 23, looked straight ahead as Victorian Supreme Court Justice James Elliott handed down his sentence in Ballarat on Tuesday.
He will be eligible for parole after 22 years and four months.
Young initially denied he murdered Hannah McGuire in April 2024, claiming her 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 about 2.30am on April 5.
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 AU$2000 (NZ$2295) from McGuire's bank account to her mother and AU$5000 (NZ$5737) to himself.
Justice 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 learnt of her killer's sentence.
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