Lachlan Young acquitted of raping teenager before murdering Hannah McGuire
A jury found the convicted killer not guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl two months before he strangled his girlfriend
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
Camera IconLachlan Young has been found not guilty of raping a teen weeks before murdering his ex-partner. (HANDOUT/ANITA LESTER) Credit: AAP
Photograph: PerthNow (embedded from source)
What this story says
- A jury acquitted Lachlan Young of raping a 16-year-old girl in February 2024, two months before he murdered his girlfriend, Hannah McGuire.
- Young was already serving a 28-year prison sentence for McGuire’s murder when the rape trial concluded.
- The jury in the rape trial was not told of Young’s murder conviction or that McGuire was his girlfriend at the time of the alleged rape.
- No right-rated outlet reported on the acquittal, though six outlets across the left and centre did.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 6 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. Coverage measured .
Trust
76/100
Craft
95/100
Hype
30/100
6 sources · methodology
Thin on the right so far
None of the 6 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
A jury in Victoria found Lachlan Young not guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl on 15 August 2026. The alleged assault took place on 5 February 2024 at a house party in Sebastopol, a suburb of Ballarat. Young was already serving a 28-year prison sentence for murdering his girlfriend, Hannah McGuire, on 5 April 2024.
The rape trial was held without the jury knowing of Young’s murder conviction or that McGuire was his girlfriend at the time of the alleged assault. A suppression order barred media from reporting these details until the verdict was delivered. Young testified that the sexual contact was consensual and stopped immediately when the girl disclosed her age. The prosecution argued she had not consented to intercourse.
The jury began deliberations on 13 August 2026 and returned a not-guilty verdict two days later. Young showed no visible reaction in court beyond a smile to his lawyer after the judge left. He is imprisoned at Barwon Prison, with his murder sentence due to expire in August 2052 and his earliest parole date in 2046.
What the reports disagree on
The digests from the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and WA Today state Young is serving a jail term of "at least 22 years". PerthNow and ABC Australia report the sentence as 28 years. The Canberra Times digest does not specify the length of the sentence.
What the coverage left out
No right-rated outlet ran the story at all. None of the digests from the left or centre mentioned whether Young knew the rape complaint had been escalated to police when he murdered McGuire, a detail reported by ABC Australia. The digests also omitted the girl’s age at the time of the alleged assault, which both full reports specified as 16.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 4 times, most recently on 20 Aug 2026, 07:15, and will add the sides that appear.
How other outlets pictured it
Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.
A court sketch of Lachlan Young during his August 2026 County Court trial. (Supplied: Anita Lester)
ABC Australia — embedded from source
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
4 rated outlets
- All four left-rated reports led on the acquittal and Young’s existing murder conviction. ABC Australia and PerthNow, the only left-rated outlets with full reports, both detailed the suppression order that kept the jury from knowing Young had murdered McGuire. ABC Australia described the case as "one of the most high-profile cases Ballarat has seen in recent years" and noted Young’s admission to a "horror campaign of domestic violence" against McGuire.
- ABC Australia quoted Young’s testimony: "That did not happen" and "I had a partner at home. I was doing the wrong thing and it shouldn’t have got to that stage and I pulled it up." The outlet also reported the Snapchat messages the girl sent Young after the alleged assault, including: "How’s ya Missus, how would she feel about u f***ing an underage and cheating on her." PerthNow reproduced the same messages.
- The digests from the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times all noted the jury was unaware of Young’s murder conviction during the rape trial. The Canberra Times digest described Young as "a violent man who strangled a young woman and then staged her death as a suicide."
Centre
2 rated outlets
- The two centre-rated reports, PerthNow and WA Today, both led on the acquittal and Young’s murder conviction. PerthNow’s full report described the suppression order and the jury’s ignorance of Young’s relationship with McGuire. It quoted Young’s testimony: "I pulled it up" when the girl disclosed her age. The outlet also reported the Snapchat messages the girl sent Young, including: "How’s ya missus? How would she feel about you f****** an underage (girl) and cheating on her?"
- WA Today’s digest noted the jury was not told of Young’s "murderous past" during the rape trial. Neither centre-rated report mentioned Young’s admission to domestic violence against McGuire.
Right
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated right has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Read it at the source
6 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
4- Murderer found not guilty of raping underage girl (opens The Canberra Times in a new tab)
The Canberra Times — is The Canberra Times biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Breaking: Ballarat killer Lachlan Young found not guilty of raping teenager (opens ABC Australia in a new tab)
ABC Australia — is ABC Australia biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Hannah McGuire’s killer found not guilty of raping student two months before murder (opens The Age in a new tab)
- Hannah McGuire’s killer found not guilty of raping student two months before murder (opens Sydney Morning Herald in a new tab)
Sydney Morning Herald — is Sydney Morning Herald biased? Our profile of this outlet
Centre
2Right
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Not rated
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover Lachlan Young acquitted of raping teenager before murdering Hannah…?
- Of the 6 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 67% are rated left, 33% are rated centre, 0% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is Lachlan Young acquitted of raping teenager before murdering Hannah… left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 6 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of Lachlan Young acquitted of raping teenager before murdering Hannah… biased?
- Lachlan Young acquitted of raping teenager before murdering Hannah McGuire is one event reported by 6 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting Lachlan Young acquitted of raping teenager before murdering Hannah…?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered Lachlan Young acquitted of raping teenager before murdering Hannah…?
- 6 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- Why didn’t the jury know Lachlan Young had murdered Hannah McGuire?
- A suppression order barred the jury from knowing Young’s murder conviction or that McGuire was his girlfriend. The order was lifted after the rape trial verdict. Both ABC Australia and PerthNow reported this detail.
- What sentence is Lachlan Young serving for murdering Hannah McGuire?
- Young is serving a 28-year prison sentence for murdering McGuire, with an earliest parole date of 2046. PerthNow and ABC Australia reported the 28-year term, while some digests stated "at least 22 years".
- Did Lachlan Young testify in the rape trial?
- Yes, Young testified that the sexual contact was consensual and stopped when the girl disclosed she was 16. ABC Australia and PerthNow quoted his testimony directly.
- Which outlets reported on the acquittal?
- Four left-rated outlets (ABC Australia, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Canberra Times) and two centre-rated outlets (PerthNow, WA Today) reported the acquittal. No right-rated outlet covered the story.
How did this read?
About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.
More in Media
All Media →
Elsewhere on the site
Conflict & Security•4 min readSouth Korea puts North Korea’s nuclear arsenal at 80 to 120 warheads, above Trump’s 57
Politics•5 min readPakistan protests after US ambassador calls Jammu and Kashmir 'important part of India'
Conflict & Security•4 min readRussian missile launch warning forces US Antarctic flight to turn back