A woman who lit a fire that killed a young couple and their newborn baby took photos of the blaze before leaving the family to die.
Abbey Forrest, 19, 28-year-old Inderpal Sohal and their daughter Ivy were asleep upstairs in their rented townhouse in Melbourne, Australia when Jenny Hayes set fire to a mattress in a downstairs bedroom.
The couple woke up but were unable to reach the front door due to the flames, and could not open the only accessible window because it was locked with a chain. All three died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Almost two years on from the fire, which happened in December 2020, 46-year-old Hayes has - reportedly as part of a plea deal - been permitted to plead guilty to the charge of arson causing death as opposed to murder.
This comes despite crown prosecutor Ray Gibson telling the Supreme Court of Victoria on Monday that Hayes knew there were people in the house when she set it alight, reports the Daily Mail.
She had previously been charged with three counts of murder and one count of arson.
It remains unclear why Victoria's Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd QC offered up the deal, which will see Hayes subject to a maximum penalty of 25 years in jail instead of a possible life sentence.
Hayes did not appear in court, and instead was allowed to phone in from prison after crying through previous appearances.
The sex worker had been called to the family's house by one of Mr Sohal's friends.
The friend was using the couple's downstairs bedroom during the pandemic and had agreed to meet Hayes outside the property just after 2am that night - unbeknownst to Mr Sohal.
The pair went into the house and, according to Mr Gibson, the friend told Hayes there were other people inside.
He apparently said she should keep her voice down because his friend was sleeping upstairs.
The court heard that after 30 minutes of sex, Mr Aakash demanded more, but Hayes refused - causing Mr Aakash to take his money back.
He then drove off and left the family's home.
After a series of heated text messages, Hayes told Mr Sohal's friend that she would set the house on fire.
CCTV footage played to the court showed Hayes carrying out her threat, stopping to take photos as the downstairs bedroom went up in flames.
"You f***ed with the wrong person," Hayes said.
A neighbour who tried to save the family later told police she had seen Mr Sohal calling for help from the window before going quiet.
Hayes later told her friends about the fire, the court heard, saying she was fed up with people walking all over her.
"I'm so sick of people thinking they can just do this s*** to me and nothing happens to them. He took what I had, so I took what he had," she told one friend.
Hayes also showed two friends pictures of the house fire, the court was told.
She later denied she knew anyone was in the house when she set it alight.
Abbey's parents expressed the disappointment at the prosecution's decision not to pursue murder charges.
Her mum, Elizabeth Forrest, told the court: "I feel so lost, empty and ripped off to the point that my heart aches... it's not fair. She has her family - Jenny took the lives of my family."
Abbey's father Alan Forrest said the justice system felt unjust, with the court process appearing to protect Hayes while offering the family little.
He paid tribute to Abbey's cheekiness and competitive spirit, saying he sobs through Sunday family dinners without her.
A number of other family members also made victim statements in court, including Abbey's grandfather and her five-year-old nephew, who showed the court a picture he had drawn of Ivy punching fire because, he said, she was scared.
Mr Sohal's sister, Harpreet Sekhon, said she couldn't bear to tell her children the family had died, and recalled her young son seeing a photo of them in a newspaper, 9 News reports.
"He innocently asked if they were famous," she told the court.
"They just know they are with the angels, watching over them."
Hayes will be sentenced at a later date.
