Fresh details about Greg Lynn’s life and career revealed in court
Greg Lynn tried to become a fighter pilot in the Australian Air Force and was at one point the leader of a Christian youth group, a court was told ahead of his sentencing for the murder of missing camper Carol Clay.
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High country killer Greg Lynn nearly became a fighter pilot in the Australian air force but failed a final test, prompting him to pursue a career in commercial aviation.
The former Jetstar captain, 58, was also the leader of a Christian youth group in Tasmania, a foster parent and travelled to India with his first wife where they purchased a home for the family of a child they had been sponsoring.
Fresh details about Lynn’s life were revealed in the Supreme Court ahead of his 32-year sentence for what a judge described as the “violent, brutal, horrific” murder of missing camper Carol Clay, 73.
Born in Penrith in Sydney’s western suburbs in 1966, Lynn was raised in the Blue Mountains before his family moved to Lismore in northern New South Wales.
After he finished school, he was accepted for an engineering degree at Sydney University but left after a few months to pursue his dream of becoming a pilot.
He undertook the RAAF Direct Entry Pilots’ Course in Point Cook but suffered severe motion sickness when flying.
A six-week balance stabilisation course which saw him spun around in a simulator fixed the issue and he graduated in 1986
“Sounds like something out of A Clockwork Orange,” Justice Michael Croucher quipped at a pre-sentence hearing.
Lynn then moved to a RAAF base in Pearce, Western Australia, where he undertook advanced pilot training.
While he finished the course, Lynn failed an instrument-handling component.
He was offered retraining as a navigator or an air traffic controller, but declined before he was discharged in December 1986.
He instead pursued a career in commercial aviation, working as a freight pilot in Tasmania.
After he was retrenched in 1992 during the recession, Lynn worked picking asparagus and as a tour guide with Tasmania Expeditions while he looked for another job.
He went on to work as a flight instructor and ambulance pilot before joining Ansett and later Qatar Airways where became a captain in 2006.
He joined Jetstar where he was promoted to senior check captain in 2014, a position he held until his November 2021 arrest.
Details about Lynn’s relationships were also detailed in court, including that he met his first wife, Lisa Searle, when he was nearly 19 and she was 21.
They married in 1986, moving to Bankstown and later Launceston where they bought a home and joined the Pentecostal Church.
He became the leader of a youth group at his church, and performed volunteer work for the local Christian radio station.
The couple were also foster parents and between 1992 and 1996 they sponsored a child in India through the Christian Children’s Fund.
In 1994, they travelled to Central India and purchased a home for the family of the child they had been sponsoring.
Lynn also sponsored children with his current wife Melanie through their long-term involvement with the Smith Family.
They were also regular contributors to the Blue Ribbon Foundation.
Lynn had two sons with Lisa, the first in 1997 and the second the following year, before their relationship fell into difficulty and he moved out of their Mount Macedon home.
He started a relationship with another woman, before Lisa was found dead on the front lawn in October 1999 from combined drug and alcohol toxicity — despite being a teetotaller.
Lynn moved to Adelaide with his new partner, with the couple having a daughter in 2001.
But that relationship ultimately broke down and he returned to Melbourne with his sons.
He met Melanie while she was working as an airline attendant at Qatar Airways, with the couple marrying in 2004 before they had a son in 2007.
The family lived together at their Caroline Springs home — which has been restrained by police — until his arrest.
Lynn, who maintains his innocence, plans to appeal his conviction.
Originally published as Fresh details about Greg Lynn’s life and career revealed in court
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