The 17 points Lynn’s defence team wants you to know about the missing campers case

There are 17 issues with the prosecution case against accused double murderer Gregory Lynn, the former pilot’s lawyer claims, including no motive, junk theories and evidence that was a shambles.

Dermot Dann, KC, has told a Supreme Court jury they are the “lowlights” of a prosecution case that he says featured a series of desperate and ill-fated tactical manoeuvres that at times broke the rules of fairness to an innocent man.

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

The prosecution maintains that Lynn, 57, killed Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, with murderous intent at Bucks Camp in the Wonnangatta Valley on March 20, 2020.

Lynn says Clay died when he and Hill struggled over a shotgun and it fired, and that Hill died during a subsequent struggle over a kitchen knife.

Lynn has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder.

Here are the defence team’s key issues with the prosecution case.

A-pillar theory

Dann described as half-baked the prosecution’s theory that if Lynn was holding the gun the way the accused man described, during a struggle for the weapon on the bonnet of Hill’s white Toyota LandCruiser, the bullet would have hit the vehicle’s A-pillar.

Dann said that assertion wasn’t based on fact or geometry and, in fact, would have been an insult to ancient Greek mathematicians.

“A junk, piece of garbage served up by a desperate prosecution team,” he said.

Hill’s history with guns

Dann said Crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu – whom he compared to fictional Pink Panther character Inspector Jacques Clouseau – failed to raise with the jury any history Hill may have had with guns.

This, he said, left the defence to question Hill’s wife, Robyn, and daughter Debra about it, which proved that Hill had a long association with guns.

Hill inherited his father’s guns, which were used on the family farm, after his father’s death in the 1970s. They were later surrendered during a gun amnesty. Debra Hill had once seen her father using one of those guns, Dann said.

Hill’s mental health issues

The prosecution’s “selective and opportunistic” approach to evidence, Dann said, had painted Hill as a man at peace with the world and “as happy as a pig in shit” to be in the valley and share it with others.

Defence barrister Dermot Dann, KC.Credit: Wayne Taylor

But this had failed to give the jury the full picture, which included a witness’s concerns that Hill may have taken his own life after he was reported missing and the fact that Hill was taking prescription medication at the time of his death.

The shooting death of Hill’s relative

Lynn’s account was that Hill had told him of the accidental hunting death of a family member in the valley in 1995.

“Lynn’s account of that is unchallenged,” Dann said.

The defence barrister said this supported the credibility of Lynn’s account about what happened and witness evidence of Hill speaking about the death to other campers.

“Maybe the concept of an accidental shooting death was a bit too close to home for the prosecution?” Dann asked.

How Hill ‘made the rules’

Dann said Hill was a man of contradictions who had been living a double life with two women for about 20 years.

He said this applied to the rules and regulations of camp life, depending on who was around.

Dann suggested this was because Hill took a self-policing type role in the valley and that he had been seen by other campers illegally chopping down snow gums on an earlier trip.

The drone

Weed sprayer Robbie Williams told the jury he saw a drone fly above him as he finished work for the day in the valley late on March 20, 2020. He said it flapped as if it was waving at him before flying away from above his camp.

Dann noted police had doubted this was Hill’s drone as it was some kilometres away from Bucks Camp at the other end of the open space. He accused the prosecution of wasting the court’s time presenting this evidence.

“Shambles, from start to finish,” Dann said.

The burnt tent

Forensic fire investigator George Xydias told the jury Hill and Clay’s tent was L-shaped, but the prosecution later gave manufacturer pictures to the jury to show it was not, and in fact had a canopy at the front, not the side.

“We know what Mr Lynn said about configuration of the tent was right. We had the photos, the informant had them,” Dann said.

“You can’t have any confidence about their submissions. It’s been a shambles, no other word to describe it, and we’re only just starting the process.”

The vacuum theory

The theory, which suggests blood can be drawn back into the barrel of a firearm if a person is shot at close range, was first raised in DNA and blood-spatter expert Mark Gellatly’s evidence.

Dann said the prosecution’s actual firearms expert, Paul Griffiths, wasn’t asked anything about this.

When Gellatly raised the theory during his evidence, Dann pressed him on the fact it was allegedly absent from his extensive report and notes.

“The prosecution have a ballistics expert, Mr Griffiths, so he comes and gives evidence, he’s not asked a single question about the vacuum theory. Then we have the DNA man, he said his name was pronounced in different ways. Gelati might be one way of saying it, given the way he melted in the witness box like an ice cream in the sun,” Dann said.

“He’s made a statement in July 2022. No mention of the vacuum theory. Nought. Zero. Nil.”

Trajectory testing

During Griffiths’ evidence, Dann said he was asked about Lynn’s description of Clay being shot as she was crouching and beginning to stand up, at a height of about 110 centimetres.

Griffiths agreed this was plausible.

Deflection tests

Dann said the jury was told 14 car mirrors were used to test whether the bullet may have deflected off Hill’s vehicle or gone straight through and struck Clay, which was Lynn’s version of events.

“Another one of [the prosecution’s] half-baked theories,” Dann said.

“What is the prosecution case about the shot going through the mirror?”

A sketch of Gregory Lynn in the witness box at the Supreme Court last week.Credit: Paul Tyquin/Nine News

The spraying of bullets at Clay

Dann said prosecutors had told the jury they didn’t know the circumstances of how Clay was killed, other than she was fatally shot in the head.

“So where does this, you know, spraying bullets at her – where does that come from?” Dann said.

“It comes straight out of someone’s imagination, that’s where it comes from.”

“Making things up, outside the rules. It just smacks of a prosecution case that’s gone off the rails. It’s heading down a giant cliff, a giant waterfall if you like.”

The lead fragment at Bucks Camp

Dann noted the prosecution claimed a lead fragment, a partial slug from a 12-gauge shotgun, was found at Bucks Camp two years after the alleged murders.

Dann said photographs showed that the slug appeared to have been turned over after initially coming into contact with the dirt. The prosecution denies this.

“Look at all the people who searched that area. It’s been moved into the area,” Dann said.

The guy rope

Dann said the guy rope theory was also a metaphor for the prosecution case.

Russell Hill’s Toyota LandCruiser ute with a guy rope attached between it and a toilet tent.

In closing submissions, the prosecution raised for the first time that a black guy rope connected from the bonnet of Hill’s car to a portable toilet tent would have hopelessly tangled Lynn and Hill in it if they were struggling for control of the gun as the former pilot had described.

“Lynn wasn’t asked anything about it in the [police] record of interview,” Dann said.

No case to answer for Hill’s murder

Dann told the jurors they were being asked to find a man guilty or murder when the prosecution had established no factual foundation and no motive.

“Does that sit well with any of you?” Dann asked the jury.

Dann said that when Lynn was in the witness box last week, at no point did the prosecution challenge his account of how he said Hill had died, from an accidental knife wound to the chest.

“The evidence of Mr Lynn stands unchallenged as to how Mr Hill died,” Dann said.

“They just don’t have a case for charge one. No meat on the bones. How can you find someone guilty in a factual vacuum?”

No case to answer for Clay’s murder

The same fundamental problems exist with the prosecution case for Clay’s death, Dann said.

He said there remained no evidence to support the prosecution claims that she may have been killed because she was a witness to Hill’s murder.

“It’s just a theory; there’s no evidence,” Dann said.

Disposing of the bodies

Dann said his client admitted he broke the law by leaving two guns and two magazines – for a rifle and shotgun – unsecured in his car on the evening of March 20, 2020.

The deaths of Hill and Clay, Dann said, flowed from this criminality after his client feared his life would unravel if he was caught not storing guns by the rules.

“Put yourselves in Mr Lynn’s shoes,” Dann asked the jury.

“He thought he was going to be blamed for the deaths and he was 100 per cent correct. He is being wrongly blamed.”

Gregory Lynn’s Barathrum Arms shotgun and his Ruger American rifle, seized by police.

Dann said that in the aftermath of the deaths, his client was thinking about himself and how to protect his career.

“Of course he was selfish, of course he was callous, of course … terrible,” Dann said.

“He’s given reason for why he’s engaged in this terrible conduct.”

The final address

The lowest “lowlight” of the prosecution case, Dann said, was the closing address to the jury on Tuesday.

Dann said the prosecution made false claims, including a string of statements that were never put to the accused.

This included the prosecution telling the jury that Lynn’s car lights would have come on when the doors were opened to play loud music.

Dann said the car was 25 years old and no evidence was ever produced that the lights worked.

Dann said that as a result, the prosecution had turned its back to the court’s rules in its closing address

“To say as he did that Mr Lynn’s account in the record of interview was completely fanciful, and an elaborate fiction … This is an old building, but it’s been going for 150 years, and that must rank with the silliest thing ever said here,” Dann said.

“It’s got no relationship with reality.”

On Tuesday, the prosecution compared Lynn’s explanation for how the pair died to a collection of children’s books.

“A series of very unfortunate events, like the book series of that name – it is also complete fiction,” Porceddu said.

“You should readily reject it beyond reasonable doubt.”

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.