Former pilot claims hunting dispute led to campers’ deaths in tragic accident

Accused murderer Gregory Lynn says elderly campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay died accidentally after Hill took his gun and threatened to report the former airline pilot for hunting too close to their remote campsite.

On day one of Lynn’s Supreme Court trial, the jury heard the 57-year-old’s account of events, which the prosecution disputes, for the first time.

Former Jetstar pilot Gregory Lynn is on trial over the alleged murders of Russell Hill and Carol Clay.Credit: Monique Westermann

Lynn has pleaded not guilty to murdering Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, on March 20, 2020, at a campsite in Gippsland’s Wonnangatta Valley known as Bucks Camp.

Defence barrister Dermot Dann, KC, told the jury his client and the pair initially exchanged pleasantries when they set up camp close to each other on March 19, before Lynn returned from hunting the next day to find Hill’s drone flying above him.

Dann said Hill expressed concern that hunting was occurring too close to the camp and that someone close to him had previously been accidentally killed by a deer hunter.

“Mr Hill said he had footage of Mr Lynn hunting too close to the campsite and was going to take the footage to police,” Dann said.

Lynn leaves the Supreme Court last week.Credit: Joe Armao

“Mr Lynn told him he was speaking nonsense and went back to his campsite. He had his dinner and decided to turn his car stereo up, leaving the doors to his car open. He had decided to annoy Mr Hill.”

Between 9pm and 10pm, Hill had approached Lynn’s car, taking Lynn’s gun and a magazine of ammunition.

“Mr Hill said he was going to take the gun to the police as well,” Dann said. “What followed was a struggle for control of the gun ... near the front of Mr Hill’s car.”

It was then, Lynn claims, a shot was fired that struck Clay to the head, killing her.

Defence barristers Michael McGrath (left) and Dermot Dann, KC, arrive at court.Credit: Wayne Taylor

Lynn told police he was then able to reclaim the firearm and he returned to his campsite before Hill advanced towards him with a knife while screaming: “She’s dead.”

“Then a struggle occurred over the knife. The two men fall to the ground and the knife goes through the chest of Mr Hill,” Dann said.

The jury was told Lynn then made a series of terrible choices, fearing his life would be “screwed”, and tried to make the disaster go away.

This included burning the crime scene and bundling the bodies into his trailer and travelling through the night to another remote area, known as Union Spur Track, where he hid the remains.

Lynn’s vehicle and trailer travel past a camera on the Great Alpine Road.Credit: Victoria Police

Dann said Lynn returned to the burial site two months later and then again in November 2020 when he burned the remains of the pair.

“He describes burning those bodies, being physically sick. He describes scooping the remains up from the fire ... and depositing the remnants of the fire nearby.” Dann said it was up to the prosecution to dispute Lynn’s account and reminded the jury his client was presumed innocent.

“On the defence case, this is not a case of two cases of murder or two cases of manslaughter. This is a case of two accidental tragic deaths, tragic accidental deaths in circumstances which were not of Lynn’s making and not of his choosing,” Dann said.

Earlier, the court heard that Hill told his wife, Robyn, he was going away camping at Wonnangatta for about a week before collecting Clay from her Pakenham home at 7.30am on March 19, 2020, arriving in the High Country later that day.

Crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu said Hill had been Clay’s first-ever boyfriend, and they had recommenced a relationship in about 2006.

Clay was heavily involved in community organisations including the Country Women’s Association and Hill was a frequent camper and radio enthusiast who, during his trips away, would regularly operate his two-way radio and check in with others at 6pm.

Porceddu said while the precise motivation and circumstances of the killings was unknown, prosecutors allege Lynn deliberately and violently killed the pair with “murderous intent” – likely after a dispute over Hill’s drone.

Porceddu told the court that while it was also not known how Hill was killed, police allege he died first – in conflict with Lynn’s account – before Clay was shot in the head as she crouched down near the canopy of the pair’s Landcruiser.

Crown prosecutors Kathryn Hamill and Daniel Porceddu arrive at court.Credit: Wayne Taylor

“He [Lynn] did not report the deaths of Mr Hill and Mrs Clay or contact police,” Porceddu said.

On March 21, 2020, Hill didn’t call in on his radio. He was reported missing to police by his wife on March 26.

When a police investigation identified Lynn, they alleged he had painted his car – from dark grey to beige – and disposed of his box trailer in the weeks after the killings.

The court heard that a forensic examination found blood splatters and fatty deposits under the canopy of Hill’s Landcruiser, and Clay’s skull fragments and a metal projectile fragment, probably from a 12-gauge shotgun, were found at Bucks Camp.

Detective Senior Constable Brett Florence, from the missing persons squad, outside court.Credit: Wayne Taylor

Porceddu said that at the Union Spur Track site, near Dargo, police uncovered charred remains, including a burnt human tibia, or leg bone, and a toe bone, hidden in the base of a fallen tree.

More than 2100 pieces of burnt and highly fragmented bones and a ring belonging to Clay were found there, he told the jury.

Porceddu said examination of the bone fragments “indicated they were from at least two adult humans”, and had started to decompose before being moved, burnt and later placed in the tree hole.

The trial continues.

A new podcast from 9News, The Age and 9Podcasts will follow 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.