A lady from Melbourne who ignited a fire that killed three people, including a three-week-old infant, is scheduled to enter a guilty plea.
Jenny Hayes came before the Supreme Court of Victoria to face six counts related to the fire that killed Abigail Forrest, her boyfriend Inderpal Singh, and their daughter Ivy.
At December 2020, emergency services were dispatched to a fire on Totem Way in Point Cook, south-west of Melbourne, where they discovered three dead.
The next day, Ms. Hayes was arrested and charged with murder and arson resulting in death.
Jenny Hayes, their murderer, announced on Wednesday that she will accept a plea bargain from Victoria’s Office of Public Prosecutions to plead guilty to the lesser charge of arson resulting in death.
The early morning fire at Point Cook in Melbourne’s south-west claimed the lives of the family.
The 47-year-old appeared in the Supreme Court of Victoria via videolink from the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, where the court heard that prosecutors and the defense had reached a plea agreement.
Hayes had cried throughout her previous court appearance in April of last year, when she pleaded not guilty to the deaths of the young family.
It is unknown why Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions, Kerri Judd QC, offered the plea bargain.
Hayes will now only plead guilty to arson resulting in death, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, according to the prosecution.
Hayes was facing life in jail if convicted of murder.
She was detained the morning after the murders on suspicion that she had a dispute with a family guest.
The precise claims made against Hayes by police remain unknown.
At the time of the deadly fire, the Herald Sun claimed that police were investigating if a purported dispute about sexual services was in fact the cause.
The publication said that a disagreement arose about the sexual services Hayes was to perform before she returned and set the house on fire.
The police eventually established that Hayes did not know the alleged murder victims.
