Inside Greg Lynn’s sentencing for murder of missing camper Carol Clay

During Greg Lynn’s murder sentencing he revealed one thing he was not sorry for, while Judge Croucher gave ad hoc show of empathy and apologised to the courtroom. See why.

Greg Lynn was sorry, the Supreme Court heard on Friday.

Sorry to the families of Russell Hill and Carol Clay for his “callous” treatment of their remains.

Sorry to his former employer, Jetstar.

Sorry to his own family, for the pain of his murder trial and his inability to save the family home.

But he wasn’t sorry for the murder of Carol Clay, he wrote in a contrition letter presented to the court. He couldn’t be, because he didn’t do it. Indeed, a jury decision to convict him of murder had left him “disappointed” and “perplexed”.

As it is, Lynn will be 79 years old when he is eligible for parole, which would give him about four more years of earthly freedom – if the average Australian male life expectancy is a measure.

We say as it is, because Lynn has already flagged his intention to appeal the verdict.

He took the sentence, arms clasped, expression blank, as he has every critical moment of his trial.

His mask of impassivity was unmoved by the gathering of 16 victim family members only a few metres away. They seemed united, as if by a common enemy, despite the infelicitous relationship of their loved ones.

Greg Lynn was handed his prison sentence on Friday over the deaths of missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay.Picture: David Geraghty / NewsWire

Justice Michael Croucher was sorry, too, for very different reasons.

In 2017, in one of his famed shows of judicial humanity, he cried throughout a sentencing of a man who had killed his brother.

He held it together for most of the first hour of Lynn’s sentencing.

His sentencing, which would run to 85 minutes, then stalled as he recounted the victim impact statements of family members.

Carol Clay’s daughter had the “horror of her mother’s murder” on repeat in her mind, and she was exhausted by it.

Jillian Walker said that the story of her sister’s remains being found was “horrific, sickening and abominable”. Her sister being reduced to fragments was “unimaginable”.

Justice Croucher navigated these sentiments.

Then he tackled the “excruciating legal limbo” of Russell Hill’s family.

Their loved one, according to a jury, had died alongside Clay, but had not been murdered. Justice Croucher stopped, repeatedly, to gather himself as he acknowledged “their plight, their agony, their suffering”.

The sentence was greeted without a gasp or a shout in the courtroom.

Greg Lynn, pictured here arriving at court earlier this year. Picture: NewsWire/Nadir Kinani

Afterwards, family members milled and hugged, even smiled. They did not appear to be outraged, despite the prosecution’s earlier argument that Lynn should receive a life term with no parole. Instead, they projected relief.

Earlier, Lynn had arrived in a Melbourne downpour. Savvy media photographers rubbed rags on his waiting prison van in the pursuit of a clear shot.

His bearing remained true to his earlier appearances, a projected mix of reading glasses and manilla folders so at odds with the violence of his crime.

On Friday, he didn’t flinch at his life history being told, including the death of his first wife Lisa.

He listened on, jotting an odd note here and there, as Justice Croucher said he couldn’t explain why Mrs Clay was murdered.

This lack of proven motive goes to the lingering mysteries of a grisly saga.

A culprit has been found. But the story still lacks the requisite facts to make sense of an elderly man and woman being reduced “almost to nothingness”, to borrow the judge’s term, after a chance encounter with a stranger.

Justice Croucher ended the sitting with another ad hoc show of empathy.

“To the families of both deceased, I say I’m terribly sorry for your loss,” he said as he left the bench.