Prosecution says Greg Lynn’s version of events is ‘a script he’s had one year and eight months to compose and rehearse, over and over and over’

Greg Lynn’s defence barrister has labelled the prosecution case a disgrace, while the prosecution says Mr Lynn’s story is a “script” he has had a significant amount of time to rehearse.

Carol Clay and Russell Hill were allegedly murdered during a camping trip to the Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020.

Accused high country killer Greg Lynn’s claims that Russell Hill and Carol Clay were accidentally killed is “complete fiction”, a prosecutor has told a jury.

But the former airline pilot’s defence barrister hit back, accusing the prosecution of employing “increasingly desperate” tactics to argue their case.

Mr Lynn, 57, is standing trial in the Supreme Court for the murders of childhood sweethearts Mr Hill, 74, and Mrs Clay, 73, who vanished during a camping trip to the Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020.

Now in the fifth week of the trial, Crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu on Tuesday delivered his closing address, urging the jury to reject Mr Lynn’s “completely fanciful” version of events.

“The accused story is indeed a series of very unfortunate events,” he said.

“Like the book series of that name, it is a complete fiction.”

According to Mr Lynn’s account, Mr Hill and Mrs Clay were accidentally killed in separate struggles involving a shotgun and knife after a confrontation between the men over the elderly camper’s drone.

Russell Hill and Carol Clay’s fire-damaged campsite. Picture: Supreme Court of Victoria

Fearing he would be blamed for their deaths, Mr Lynn admitted bundling their bodies in his trailer, dumping them in remote bush before later returning and setting fire to their remains.

Lynn’s account ‘implausible’

Mr Lynn claimed the deadly confrontation was sparked when Mr Hill took the ex-pilot’s shotgun from his Nissan Patrol because he said he had seen him hunting close to the campsite.

According to Mr Lynn, Mr Hill threatened to take the firearm and drone footage to police before the two wrestled over it as Mr Lynn tried to get it back.

Mr Porceddu told the jury there were a number of reasons why that account was “implausible”.

“First, he’s got the wrong gun,” he said.

Mr Porceddu said Mr Lynn claimed Mr Hill confiscated his shotgun, despite him hunting with a rifle.

Crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu says Mr Lynn’s version of events is ‘complete fiction’. Picture: Diego Fedele

According to his account, Mr Lynn also claimed Mr Hill also took a box of ammunition which he loaded into the gun as he walked away.

Mr Porceddu asked the jury if it was Mr Hill’s plan to confiscate the firearm, why would he load it.

“Why are you loading it when all you’re looking to do is take it back to your campsite?” he said.

He also pointed out that according to Mr Lynn’s account, Mr Hill left the rifle in the car.

“Don’t you think you’d make sure he wasn’t left with another gun?” Mr Porceddu said, noting the two had been hostile to each other.

Mr Porceddu said he expected the defence may argue the evidence was not inconsistent with their client’s account.

But he said the “wholesale destruction” of so much evidence meant little could be made of it.

He also said the defence had focused on the affair between Mr Hill and Mrs Clay and the jury may have a view on it but it was “not an issue in this case”.

On Mr Lynn’s account, the prosecutor said Mr Hill had gone from “cordial” to “homicidal rage” in the space of 24 hours.

Gregory Lynn’s Barathrum Arms SP-12 shotgun was allegedly used to murder Carol Clay. Picture: Supreme Court of Victoria

He said Mr Lynn’s description of Mr Hill being hostile towards him because he was a deer hunter made “no sense”.

It was “inconceivable” that the elderly camper did not have regular interactions with hunters given he was in the alpine region so often, the prosecutor said.

Lynn had 20 months to get ‘script’ right

Mr Porceddu said Mr Lynn had a significant amount of time to get his “script” right.

“A script he’s had one year and eight months to compose and rehearse, over and over and over again,” he said.

During the initial confrontation, Mr Lynn claimed he ducked down low against the driver’s side door before trying to disarm Mr Hill when he saw the barrel over the bonnet of the car.

“How could that of happened?” Mr Porceddu asked.

The Crown claims that if Mr Lynn’s account of his struggle with Mr Hill was true, the pair would have become ‘hopelessly tangled’ in the guy rope strung between the bull bar and toilet. Picture: Supreme Court of Victoria

Mr Porceddu said there was a guy rope connected between a toilet tent and Mr Hill’s LandCruiser where Mr Lynn said the struggle took place, but he made no mention of it during his police interview.

“If he’s grabbed the barrel and jumped up in the way he described, he and Mr Hill would’ve become hopelessly entangled in the rope,” he said.

Mr Lynn told the jury during his evidence he did not see the rope and it was not an obstacle during the struggle.

Mr Porceddu said once Mr Lynn became aware of the rope, he changed his story.

“Quite simply the rope ruins the whole account. The so called struggle for the gun is the whole lynch pin in the accused’s story,” Mr Porceddu said.

“Once that falls like a house of cards, everything else tumbles with it.

“We urge you to see the accused account for what it is — a carefully constructed fiction.”

Lynn ‘killed’ Hill then Clay

Mr Porceddu said Mr Lynn killed Mr Hill then Mrs Clay because she was unlikely to provoke a violent confrontation or pose a threat other than being a witness.

“Had she been allowed to live Mrs Clay would’ve been in a position to identify the accused,” he said.

“In other words, she was eliminated because she was a witness.”

Had he been alive, he said Mr Hill would’ve called for help via his radio.

Mr Porceddu said the prosecution could not say the motive or the precise circumstances of the pair’s murders, other than that Mrs Clay was “shot to the head”.

He said it was likely Mr Lynn felt some “animosity” towards the couple, particularly Mr Hill.

Having murdered the pair, Mr Porceddu said Mr Lynn commenced an “elaborate, calculated and protracted” series of actions to disguise his involvement.

He said those steps began immediately after their deaths and up until days before his November 2021 arrest.

Greg Lynn painted his car as part of an ‘elaborate, calculated and protracted’ series of actions to disguise his involvement in the missing campers case, the prosecution says. Picture: Supreme Court of Victoria

“During that time the accused intended to obliterate, and believed he had obliterated any possibility that there could be forensic evidence that could reveal anything about the manner in which Mr Hill and Mrs Clay died,” he said.

Mr Lynn admitted dumping the bodies in remote bushland before returning eight months later and setting fire to their remains, telling police he panicked and covered up their deaths because he was worried about his career and family.

“These explanations can be rejected,” Mr Porceddu said.

“The only explanation open to you is that the accused undertook these steps believing he had murdered Mr Hill and Mrs Clay.

“If they were accidental or unintentional, why would you go to the extreme and extraordinary steps of burning the bodies.”

Mr Lynn told police he expected the bodies to be found, but Mr Porceddu said that was “absolute nonsense” and he carefully chose Union Spur Track to dump because it was close to Dargo and allowed him to come back at a more “convenient time”.

Defence accuse prosecution of ‘disgraceful performance’

Defence barrister Dermot Dann KC said the prosecution had used “increasingly desperate and ill-fated tactical manoeuvres” during the trial, culminating in Mr Porceddu’s closing remarks.

“It was a disgraceful performance,” he said, as he accused the prosecution of breaking the established court procedures related to fairness.

Mr Dann said his client had provided “1057” pieces of information during his interview with police.

“We were confident … the prosecution would not be able to demonstrate one of them was a lie, and we’re still in that position,” he said.

The barrister said he would take the jury through 17 “lowlights” of the prosecution case, including that they had peddled of “half-baked” theories to a “vacuum theory” and trajectory testing.

Mr Dann said it was up to the defence to elicit information from Mr Hill’s wife, Robyn Hill, about her husband’s mental health struggles.

He said this was contrary to the prosecution case to present Mr Hill as a “happy” person who did not mind sharing the valley.

Mr Dann said blood-splatter expert Mark Gellatly — who was grilled in cross-examination for raising the “vacuum theory” — should be called “gelati” as he “melted on the stand” when quizzed about the theory.

Mr Dann’s closing address will continue on Wednesday.