Christine Ann Lyons was so desperate to become a mother she plotted to kill her housemate Samantha Kelly in a bid to claim the woman’s four young children as her own.
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On Thursday, a Supreme Court jury found the 47-year-old guilty of the murder and attempted murder of Ms Kelly, 39, who died on or about January 23, 2016.
The jury found her co-accused, 45-year-old Ronald Lyons, another of Ms Kelly’s housemates, guilty of attempted murder and assisting an offender, but not guilty of murder.
Both were charged with murder and attempted murder.
The verdicts came after a trial that stretched for almost six weeks.
Another housemate and Christine Lyons’ partner at the time, Peter Arthur, had already admitted to killing Ms Kelly by hitting her several times in the head with a hammer in a unit at the Wesley Street, Kangaroo Flat property they shared with the Lyonses.
Ms Kelly had learning disabilities and was described as easily led and vulnerable, but a kind person and loving mother.
In the days before Ms Kelly died, Christine Lyons, Ronald Lyons and Arthur attempted to kill their housemate with a cocktail of drugs given to her in drinks.
Arthur told the court that Ronald Lyons had crushed the tablets while he mixed the drinks.
Over the following two days, he said, Ms Kelly was given more medications and the three housemates discussed telling her the doctor had prescribed them to make her feel better.
A toxicology analysis revealed seven drugs were in Ms Kelly’s system at the time of her death, including four sedatives.
Some of the drugs were prescription-only, and none were prescribed to Ms Kelly – but four were prescribed to Christine Lyons.
Arthur told the court that Christine Lyons had complained the drugs were taking too long to “do the job”, and it was decided something else was to be done to kill Ms Kelly.
In the early hours of the morning following the murder, Arthur and Ronald Lyons removed Ms Kelly’s body from the unit.
Arthur then left Ms Kelly’s body in a dry creek bed at Shelbourne, where it was recovered on February 11 after Arthur admitted to the murder and led police to the site.
Christine Lyons, Ronald Lyons and Arthur told friends, police and the media that Ms Kelly had “run off” with a man in the middle of the night when questions were raised about her disappearance.
They told people she had been taking drugs, acted violently towards her children, and had said she wanted nothing more to do with her children.
Christine Lyons also began calling two of the children by different names.
The court heard Christine Lyons had asked a neighbour to have a child for her, and she and Ronald Lyons had previously tried to claim guardianship of a girl who was under the care of the Department of Health and Human Services.
She also discussed the possibility of having Ms Kelly’s youngest child, a baby at the time, “signed over” to her with the child’s father.
“Christine Lyons was unable to bear children herself and she was desperate for children of her own,” Crown prosecutor Fran Dalziel told the court in her opening address.
“She wanted to raise Samantha's children as her own children.”
A close friend of both Ms Kelly and Christine Lyons, and a cousin of Ronald Lyons, told the court she was party to two discussions with Christine Lyons and Arthur about killing Ms Kelly.
Shiralee Lyons said the pair had discussed drugging Ms Kelly, with the intention of making it look like an overdose.
Ms Lyons told the court Christine Lyons had said she wanted “Sam go on a permanent holiday”.
She heard another conversation between Ronald Lyons and Christine Lyons, she said, during which other possible methods of murder were discussed.
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Another witness, Ms Kelly’s cousin Michelle Enright, said she was on the phone to Ms Kelly at the time she was killed.
Ms Enright told the court her cousin said she had been given a drink that made her feel “funny” in the head, and was upset because, she said, “They only wanted me for my kids”.
The court heard from the partner of Ms Kelly’s brother, Danielle Stevenson, that Ms Kelly decided to move from Ballarat to Bendigo in mid-2015 because she thought it would be a safe haven.
She had a tumultuous relationship with an ex-partner, the father of one of her children, and he had once pleaded guilty to assaulting Ms Kelly.
But around Christmas 2015, Ms Stevenson said, Ms Kelly told her she felt she had outstayed her welcome, and in January began “really pushing” to visit and get away.
Ms Kelly’s brother Michael said his sister had told him “they’re starting to take over” in mid-December 2015.
The defence lawyers for Christine Lyons and Ronald Lyons argued Arthur acted alone in the killing, repeatedly striking Ms Kelly in a fit of rage.
Christine Lyons’ lawyer Peter Kilduff said Arthur was a violent man, with whom his client was trapped.
He drew attention to the inconsistencies in Arthur’s evidence – including his initial interview with police in which he said he had acted alone – and that in the evidence of other witnesses.
Ronald Lyons’ lawyer Jarrod Williams also argued that Arthur’s evidence could not be relied upon, and without it, there was no evidence his client had participated in the murder and attempted murder of Ms Kelly.
But after more than six days of deliberation, the jury of seven women and five men decided Christine Lyons had been party to an agreement to kill – and attempt to kill – Ms Kelly, while Ronald Lyons had participated in the attempted murder and assisted after her death. The pair will be sentenced at a later date.