Former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn’s murder conviction has been overturned by Victoria’s highest court.
Lynn, 59, had been sentenced to 32 years in prison last October over what Justice Michael Croucher described as the “violent, brutal, horrific death” of 73-year-old Carol Clay.
A respected member of the Country Women’s Association, Clay vanished while camping with her partner, 74-year-old Russell Hill, in Victoria’s High Country in March 2020.
Following a five-week trial, a jury found Lynn guilty of Clay’s murder but acquitted him of murdering Hill.
On Thursday morning, at 9.15am, Lynn returned to the Court of Appeal where President of the Court of Appeal Justice Karin Emerton, Justice Phillip Priest and Justice Peter Kidd delivered their ruling.
Justice Emerton found “serious irregularities” had occurred during the trial, concluding that a substantial miscarriage of justice had taken place.
The conviction was set aside and a new trial ordered.
Notably, none of Lynn’s family members – who had been present for much of the original trial and later hearings – attended Thursday’s judgment.
Lynn was seen shaking hands with his legal team, while members of the Hill and Clay families were heard quietly crying.
Detective Sergeant Brett Florence said the families were “devastated”.
Lynn has been in custody since his arrest in November 2021, 20 months after the couple disappeared. A keen hunter, he later led police to the remains of Clay and Hill after four days of intense questioning inside a police station.
However, large portions of his nine hours of recorded interviews were ultimately excluded from the trial after Justice Croucher ruled detectives had attempted to undermine legal advice through a “withering barrage of oppressive and improper inducements”.
Throughout the investigation and trial, Lynn insisted he was not guilty of murder. He told police – and later the jury – that both deaths occurred accidentally during a struggle with Hill.
“I’ve made some poor decisions but murder, as I understand it, I’m innocent of,” he told detectives at the conclusion of a three-day interview.
Lynn admitted at trial that he burned the couple’s campsite in the Wonnangatta Valley, dumped their remains beside the Union Spur Track, and later returned twice to further destroy the bodies.
During his October appeal against both conviction and sentence, Lynn argued prosecutors breached fairness rules and that the jury’s verdict reflected an “impermissible pathway” of reasoning.
His barrister, Dermot Dann KC, submitted that the jury may have concluded Clay was killed to conceal Hill’s death – a line of logic they were expressly prohibited from adopting unless they were satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Hill had been murdered.
“This was done as an all or nothing case, there was never a pathway laid out by the prosecution on how you could have a split verdict,” he said.
“What’s on the line is the prospect of dying in jail.”
Lynn also argued his sentence – seven years above the standard non-parole period – was excessive.
Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions, Brendan Kissane KC, conceded there were issues with the way the case had been run at trial but maintained the jury’s finding was not a miscarriage of justice.
He argued the panel was entitled to reject Lynn’s version of events and convict him of Clay’s murder based on the evidence and his conduct afterwards.
“It was well open for the jury to find the accused not guilty in relation to Mr Hill but guilty in relation to Ms Clay,” he said.
Lynn is expected to return to court for a mention on January 28.
The Office of Public Prosecutions declined to comment on the decision.
Images: Facebook / Victoria Police
