As it happened: Prosecutor pushes for life sentence in Greg Lynn pre-sentence hearing; defence drops highly unusual legal manoeuvre

Good afternoon,

Thank you for following our live coverage of Gregory Lynn’s pre-sentence hearing.

Today, the court heard from three women who spoke about how their lives were shattered when Carol Clay was murdered.

Carol ClayCredit: Victoria Police.

Carol Clay’s daughter Emma Davies told the court that the years after her mother vanished were like a horror movie.

“I will not be saying the name of the man who murdered my mother’s name,” she said. “I find it difficult to form the words of his name without feeling nauseous.”

Clay’s sister and best friend also refused to mention Lynn’s name. “It was evil, wicked and unconscionable,” Jillian Walker told the court. “This is what was done to my sister.”

“No one deserves to die the way Carol died,” her lifelong friend Alison Abbott said. “This crime has devastated me because Carol was an inspiration.”

The pre-sentence hearing has concluded.Justice Croucher says he intends to sentence Lynn on October 18.

The court heard Greg Lynn’s defence team will no longer pursue a stay on the case but noted that the guilty verdict’s long-term future was “precarious.”

In July, Lynn’s legal team revealed they were considering using the highly unusual legal manoeuvre to have his murder conviction quashed.

Defence barrister Dermot Dann, KC, said the prosecution had acted unfairly during Lynn’s trial, breaking the rules up to 25 times. A stay which, if granted, would have been only the second time in the state’s history during the 2016 Brett Whiteley trial over a multimillion-dollar art fraud.

But at the time, Justice Michael Croucher said the same result occurring in a murder case would be like him winning the Stawell Gift running race.

Back to the afternoon session of Greg Lynn’s pre-sentence hearing. His defence team is detailing the 58-year-old’s background.

Born in 1966 in Penrith Hospital, he was raised in the Blue Mountains in NSW and educated at Lismore High School.

He has two sisters and a brother who live in southeast Queensland, and a mother who lives in a NSW nursing home.

Greg Lynn was found gulity of murdering Carol Clay.Credit: Nine

Defence barrister Dermot Dann, KC, said Lynn was accepted into an engineering degree but, with an ambition to be a pilot, joined the RAAF.

He later moved to the Western Australia base but “fell at the last hurdle” and was discharged before studying to become a commercial pilot.

Lynn later worked with Qantas, Qatar, and Jetstar, working at places including an asparagus farm in Tasmania during industry downturns.

Dann said Lynn’s most significant relationship was with his former wife, Lisa Lynn. They became heavily involved in a Pentecostal church in Tasmania before returning to Victoria.

Lisa Lynn later died after being found on the front lawn of the family’s Mount Macedon home. Lynn later met and married his current wife Melanie in 2004.

The court head the couple own a home in Caroline Springs, but they’re now at risk of losing the property and his family being displaced.

The 58-year-old is also currently being held in custody as a protected prisoner and has been assaulted in custody towards the end of the murder trial.

“There is a police inquiry into that matter. He is a high-profile prisoner,” Dann said.
“He’s a vulnerable prisoner in custody.”

Defence barrister Dermot Dann, KC, said they remained “gravely troubled” by the guilty jury verdict and raised the possibility of it being an unsafe result, with the case likely bound for the Court of Appeal.

“Apart from his version, there is no other version. We just have Mr Lynn’s version,” he told the pre-sentence hearing.

Greg Lynn arrives at the Supreme court for a two-day plea hearing.Credit: Joe Armao

“Your honour has to sentence this man on the basis that there is no motive that’s been established.”

The court is now breaking for lunch. We will resume our live coverage when the hearing begins again at 2pm.

Defence barrister Dermot Dann, KC, said they acknowledged Carol Clay had made an exceptional contribution to the community.

“We recognise that her passing, death, murder as found by the jury, has had a devastating impact on her family and friends.”

Dann said Lynn had said himself that his behaviour, particularly his treatment of the bodies of Russell Hill and Clay, was despicable.

The prosecution has asked for a life sentence for Greg Lynn.

Now, the court will hear from Lynn’s defence barrister, Dermot Dann, KC.

Defence barrister Dermot Dann, right, is representing Greg Lynn.Credit: Luis Ascui

Dann said he recognised this case involved the tragic outcome of the loss of two lives but reminded the court that his client maintained his innocence.

As we know, Mr Lynn’s been found not guilty of charge of murder involving Mr Hill and been found guilty of charge of murder involving Mrs Clay.

We recognise all of what’s been said today.

We recognise her passing death – murder, as found by the jury – has had a devastating impact on her family and friends.

He accepts that he acted despicably in respect to the treatment of the bodies of Mr Hill and Mrs Clay. What he did was despicable. But we say … we are a long, long way apart from the prosecution in their call for a life sentence.

We say that submission is completely misplaced.

This cannot be a case that falls into the worst category.”

The Crown is calling for Greg Lynn to be handed a life sentence, a jail term saved for only the gravest of murders.

The worst category of murderers, Crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu said, included wife-killer Adrian Basham, baby-killer Harley Hicks, and Melbourne CBD shooter Chris Hudson.

Porceddu said Lynn had shown no signs of remorse, and any apology he gave to Clay’s family during his evidence was nothing more than “self-serving”.

Crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu has asked for Greg Lynn’s life to be spent in prison.Credit: Joe Armao

“The offender went to extraordinary lengths to cover up the murder of Carol Clay. It included the obliteration of Mrs Clay’s remains. The crime committed by the offender was a grave example of the crime of murder,” Porceddu said.

“The prosecution submits the imposition of a life sentence is appropriate in this case.”

Greg Lynn is in courtroom four of the Supreme Court, listening as Carol Clay’s daughter, sister and best friend read statements to the court about how they had suffered after she vanished.

Greg Lynn arriving at court during the five-week murder trial earlier this year.Credit: Luis Ascui

A jury found Lynn, a former airline pilot, guilty of murdering Clay earlier this year in the case of the missing campers after a five-week trial.

Following seven days of deliberations, jurors rejected Lynn’s claims that Clay, 73, died accidentally at a remote campsite in eastern Victoria. Lynn was found not guilty of murdering Russell Hill, 74.

In court today, Lynn watched as Clay’s sister, Jillian Walker, read out her victim impact statement from a video link shown on a large screen.

While he briefly looked to the roof of the courtroom, he largely remained fixed on the screen.

Alison Abbott said her lifelong friend was beautiful, vibrant, clever, and funny.

The loss of Carol is incredibly sad, and the circumstances of her death have been harrowing to hear.

No one deserves to die the way Carol died. This crime has been devastating to me because Carol was an inspiration.

I miss her enormously.”

Abbott said she had a great deal of sadness and anger about what had happened to her friend.

It felt very unfair and not in keeping with the woman Carol was and how she might want to be remembered.”

Voice cracking, Jillian Walker continued to read her victim impact to the court:

The story of what happened still shocks me. It is incomprehensible.

On top of the grief, the loss, lack of concentration ... I now have rage, disbelief and confusion.

I lost my trust in the world. Was there really people in the world who would do something like that?

The treatment of the bodies was unimaginable.

The grieving was intense, with Carol on my mind all the time and the loss of her in my life.

She had been treated abominably.

It was senseless and pointless, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It is unimaginable, there is no humanity or reality in this. It made me feel sick to my stomach.

It was evil, wicked and unconscionable. This is what was done to my sister.”

Carol Clay.Credit: Victoria Police

Walker said she was haunted by what happened to Clay and a huge circle of people had been impacted.

It is unimaginable that her life should end this way. The suffering radiating out from this murder is enormous.

Carol lived a big life and was a life force, she is irreplaceable. I miss her terribly.”