Camper killer Greg Lynn’s extraordinary plan to have murder conviction quashed

Camper killer Gregory Lynn is considering using a highly unusual legal manoeuvre to have his murder conviction quashed.

Lawyers for Lynn told the Supreme Court on Friday the 57-year-old continued to maintain his innocence over the murder of Carol Clay and would appeal.

Greg Lynn arriving at court for the first time as a convicted murderer.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

But they also forecast applying for a stay which, if granted, would be only the second time it has happened in the state’s history.

Defence barrister Dermot Dann, KC, said his team held serious concerns over how the trial was run and raised fears that his client would not be able to get a fair retrial if the Court of Appeal granted one.

“In the short term we have to respect the jury verdicts and have to respect the process your honour is about to enter into in terms of the sentencing process,” he told the court.

“Lynn maintains his innocence in respect of the murder charge.

Clockwise from left: A sketch of the Bucks Camp site Gregory Lynn drew for police; Gregory Lynn; Carol Clay and Russell Hill.

“He maintains he told zero lies in the section of interview played to the jury. He maintains he’s never killed any person, any place, any time, anywhere.

“In the long term we submit that the long-term future of that guilty verdict must be seen as being in grave doubt. We’ve talked about an appeal.”

Dann said the prosecution had acted unfairly during Lynn’s trial, breaking the rules up to 25 times.

He also claimed that since the jury’s guilty verdict the case had also been flooded with inadmissible material, unsubstantiated allegations and links to other crimes which “pollute and poison” the well of justice.

This, Dann said, meant the chance of a retrial being conducted fairly was “non-existent”.

He also raised concerns about how the jury found Lynn guilty of murdering Clay but not guilty of Russell Hill’s death, labelling it an “inconsistency”.

“Having those concerns about the verdict, having those concerns about how the case was run we then have a situation where we have a man in custody who had been attacked whilst in custody,” Dann said.

“He spent the latter period of this trial in isolation for his own protection.”

Dann said they’re now considering asking the judge to stay the verdict, something that is only allowed in highly unusual, extreme situations.

Justice Michael Croucher noted that power had only ever been exercised once before, coincidentally by him, during the 2016 Brett Whiteley trial over a multimillion-dollar art fraud.

Croucher was troubled by the verdict and quashed the men’s sentence because he believed it would not survive an appeal.

Croucher said the same result occurring in a murder case, though, would be like him winning the Stawell Gift running race.

Lynn is facing decades in prison after being found guilty after a six-week trial of murdering Clay, 73, at a campsite in the Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020.

During the trial, Lynn claimed Clay, 73, and Hill, 74, died accidentally following a dispute over a drone.

Fearing he would be blamed for their deaths, Lynn said he burnt the Bucks Camp site and disposed of the pair’s remains in an area known as Union Spur Track because he needed to protect his family, lifestyle and career.

“I haven’t behaved well, I’ve made some poor decisions, but murder, as I understand it, I am innocent,” he told police during his record of interview.

“I panicked to save myself.”

Lynn was arrested and charged in November 2021 before facing trial this year.

Prosecutors claimed Lynn’s story was akin to the children’s fiction book A Series of Unfortunate Events and could not be an accurate picture of what happened.

They told the jury that while the precise motivation and circumstances of the murders were unknown, Lynn deliberately and violently killed the pair with murderous intent.

A jury ultimately rejected Lynn’s version of events and found he had shot Clay in the head as she stood near the back of Hill’s Toyota LandCruiser utility.

Lynn was ushered into court on Friday by security officers for his appearance as a convicted murderer.

Croucher ordered the matter return to court on September 12 for a plea hearing, where victim impact statements would likely be read ahead of any sentencing.

A new podcast from 9News, The Age and 9Podcasts follows the court case as it unfolds. The Missing Campers Trial is the first podcast to follow a jury trial in real time in Victoria. It’s presented by Nine reporter Penelope Liersch and Age reporter Erin Pearson.