By Erin Pearson
Convicted High Country killer Greg Lynn will appeal his murder conviction and sentence this year.
Lynn, 59, was found guilty of murdering Carol Clay, 73, and not guilty of killing Russell Hill, 74, in the Wonnangatta Valley, in north-east Victoria in March 2020.
Greg Lynn was found guilty of murder.Credit: Jason South
In November 2024, Lynn’s lawyers indicated he would seek to overturn his conviction, claiming he suffered a substantial miscarriage of justice.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard that the former airline pilot’s application for leave to appeal had now been set for October 31, a year after he was jailed for at least 24 years.
Of the five grounds the defence said it sought to flag at Lynn’s appeal, four were related to his conviction and one to his sentence.
Late last year, this masthead revealed Lynn’s defence team alleged the Crown prosecutor launched a “sustained attack” on Lynn’s version of events during the prosecution’s closing address, which included statements never put to their client when he was in the witness box.
Sergeant Brett Florence, the informant in the case, was present in court for Wednesday’s suppression hearing.Credit: Jason South
The defence is also appealing based on the evidence of ballistics expert Paul Griffiths, employed by Victoria Police. He brought the murder weapon into court and talked the jury through its operation.
The setting of an appeal date comes as this masthead joined other media outlets fighting to overturn a 2023 suppression order preventing publication of details about Lynn’s past.
On Wednesday, Sandip Mukerjea, for the media groups, argued the suppression order should not have been allowed to continue after Lynn’s sentencing hearing.
Lynn watched the hearing on video link, dressed in a black suit, reading glasses perched on the end of his nose, a mauve shirt and green-striped tie.
Barrister’s Dermot Dann, KC, and Michael McGrath.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Defence barrister Dermot Dann, KC, argued his client’s case was “vastly different” from others and that his client’s defence at any possible retrial would also remain the same - that Clay’s death was an accident.
In June 2024, the jury rejected Lynn’s version of events that the gun had accidentally discharged during a fight with fellow camper Russell Hill, travelled through the side mirror of a car and hit Clay.
Following his five-week trial, Lynn was found guilty of murdering Clay but not guilty over the death of camping partner Hill, 74.
Gregory Lynn’s sketch of the Bucks Camp site for police; Gregory Lynn (top right); Carol Clay and Russell Hill.
Lynn wrote in a letter to the court last year: “I am disappointed and perplexed by the jury verdict, as I have not killed anyone.”
Lynn’s lawyers claim the jury’s guilty verdict was unsafe and unsatisfactory.
In October, Justice Michael Croucher labelled Clay’s murder “a violent, brutal, horrific death”, and jailed Lynn for 32 years with a non-parole period of 24 years.
“No sentence this court could pass would lessen the grief or ease the pain of Mrs Clay’s loved ones,” Croucher said. “The sentence to be imposed is not a measure of Mrs Clay’s life. It can’t be.”
At the time, a victim impact statement from Clay’s family and friends expressed the “immeasurable hurt” at her death, appalling treatment of her body and the distress of not knowing what had happened to her for 20 months.
If Lynn’s appeal fails, he will be 79 before becoming eligible to apply for parole.
Justice Peter Gray will hand down his decision at a later date.
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