Melbourne woman accountable for the fire deaths of a family
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A Melbourne woman who set the fire that killed three people, including a baby who was just three weeks old, is expected to enter a guilty plea.
Six charges were brought against Jenny Hayes in the Supreme Court of Victoria in relation to the fire that claimed the lives of Abigail Forrest, her boyfriend Inderpal Singh, and their daughter Ivy.
Emergency personnel were alerted to a fire at Totem Way in Point Cook, in Melbourne’s southwest, in December 2020, where they discovered the three dead.
A day later, Ms. Hayes was taken into custody and charged with murder and arson resulting in death.
Jenny Hayes, their murderer, said on Wednesday that she would agree to a sweetheart deal with Victoria’s Office of Public Prosecutions in exchange for admitting guilt to the less serious charge of arson causing death.
Early in the morning, a fire at Point Cook in Melbourne’s southwest claimed the lives of the family.
A plea agreement had been reached between the prosecution and the defense, the Supreme Court of Victoria was informed when the 47-year-old defendant appeared there via videolink from the Dame Phyliss Frost Center.
When Hayes entered a not guilty plea to the killings of the young family in the magistrates’ court in April of last year, she cried the whole hearing.
The deal’s motivation, as proposed by Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd QC, is still unknown.
Hayes would now only admit guilt to arson causing death, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, the prosecution informed the court.
Hayes might have received a life sentence if found guilty of murder.
She had allegedly had an altercation with a family member’s house visitor when she was detained the morning following the deaths.
The specific charges that the police brought against Hayes are still unknown.
The Herald Sun said that authorities were looking into whether the tragic fire was really caused by an alleged quarrel for sexual services at the time of the incident.
According to the publication, a disagreement arose about the sexual services Hayes was supposed to render before she went back and set the home on fire.
Later, the police established that Hayes was unrelated to the family whose murder she is accused.
