Flawed case against Gregory Lynn broke court rules: defence lawyer

The legal team for accused double murderer Gregory Lynn says the Crown has embarked on a flawed prosecution of the former airline pilot, and repeatedly broke court rules to pursue its case against an innocent man.

“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,” defence barrister Dermot Dann, KC, told a Supreme Court.

Clockwise from left: A sketch of the campsite Greg Lynn drew for police, Lynn giving evidence at his trial last week, Carol Clay and Russell Hill.

An animated Dann spent much of his closing address to the jury dissecting the evidence against his client and the prosecution case that has been presented to the court over the past five weeks.

Among the parts of the Crown case Dann took issue with were 17 points of particular contention, which he described as the “lowlights” of the case against Lynn.

Dann labelled the prosecution case a series of desperate and ill-fated tactical manoeuvres that at times broke the rules of fairness when his client had been truthful to police.

The prosecution, though, says it is open to the jury to reject the accused man’s version of events and find that Lynn killed Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, with murderous intent at Bucks Camp in the Wonnangatta Valley on March 20, 2020. Lynn, 57, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of murder.

Defence barrister Dermot Dann, KC, outside the Supreme Court.Credit: Wayne Taylor

“That is how desperate this prosecution case has become. Outside the rules, making things up, all on this big stage. It just smacks of a prosecution case that’s gone off the rails, heading down a giant cliff,” Dann said.

He said it had been left to the defence team to raise with prosecution witnesses a litany of alleged issues including Hill having a previous history with guns on his father’s farm, Hill being medicated for his mental health, and that a family member, Gary Hill, died in a deer hunting accident in the Wonnangatta Valley in 1995.

The defence barrister also accused the prosecution of wasting the jury’s time by presenting evidence that wasn’t in contention, such as the type of tent Hill and Clay used, and also presenting “half-baked” theories. Among those, Dann said, was that on Lynn’s version of events on how the shooting occurred, the prosecution said Hill and Lynn would have become tangled in a guy rope.

“You might’ve thought that was the centrepoint of the [prosecutor’s] final address. But it’s a matter of absolute insignificance,” Dann told the court.

Gregory Lynn and the Bucks Camp site.

“The prosecution are clinging to the flimsy rope as if it’s their lifeline.”

Dann said the prosecution had failed to establish that Lynn murdered anyone.

He said that when Lynn was in the witness box last week, prosecutor Daniel Porceddu failed to question the accused man on his version of events regarding the knife that Lynn says killed Hill.

“That sit well with any of you? How can it?” Dann asked the jury on Wednesday.

“How can you find someone guilty in a factual vacuum?

“They just don’t have a case. No meat on the bones.”

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’s wife, Melanie Lynn, and son Geordie Lynn moved downstairs into the body of the court for the first time on Wednesday and sat about two metres in front of the accused, who is seated behind glass.

Melanie Lynn, dressed in a pink and blue skirt suit, and Geordie Lynn, in a black suit and red tie, held hands and leant on each other during Wednesday’s hearing.

On Tuesday, the prosecution compared Lynn’s explanation of how Clay and Hill died at the remote campsite as having a strong resemblance 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 told the jury.

“You should readily reject it beyond reasonable doubt.”

Porceddu told jurors they should reject the accused former pilot’s claims that the deaths were accidental.

Prosecutors allege Lynn killed the pair with murderous intent, probably after a dispute over Hill’s drone.

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.