Former pilot Greg Lynn’s appeal upheld over missing camper Carol Clay’s murder
A panel of three judges have handed down their ruling on Greg Lynn’s appeal over the murder of camper Carol Clay.
Former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn’s conviction for murdering an elderly woman has been overturned in Victoria’s highest court.
The 59-year-old was jailed for 32 years last October for what Justice Michael Croucher described as the “violent, brutal, horrific death” of Carol Clay.
Ms Clay, 73, was a stalwart of the Country Women’s Association, and vanished while camping with her boyfriend Russell Hill, 74, in Victoria’s High Country in March 2020.
Following a blockbuster five-week jury trial, Mr Lynn was found guilty of murdering Ms Clay but acquitted of the murder of Mr Hill.
He returned to the Court of Appeal on Thursday morning at 9.15am, where President of the Court of Appeal Justice Karin Emerton, Justice Phillip Priest and Justice Peter Kidd delivered their judgment.
Justice Emerton found there were a series of “serious irregularities” over the course of the trial, and a substantial miscarriage of justice had occurred.
Mr Lynn’s conviction was set aside and a new trial ordered.
Members of Mr Lynn’s family were a notable absence from the court’s public gallery after attending much of his trial and subsequent hearings.
Mr Lynn was seen shaking hands with his lawyers, and several members of Mr Hill and Ms Clay’s families were heard softly crying.
Detective Sergeant Brett Florence said the families were “devastated”.
What happens next?
Mr Lynn was remanded into custody by Justice Emerton to return before the Supreme Court on January 28.
Before, or after that date, he may seek to be released on bail pending a possible retrial.
During Mr Lynn’s appeal hearings, Crown prosecutor Kathryn Hamill gave the court an indication of what could come.
She said it was accepted that the acquittal for the charge of murder relating to Mr Hill could not be traversed in a retrial.
But Justice Priest asked, if a retrial was ordered, whether the Crown would “try to prefer a charge of manslaughter for Mr Hill?”
At the time, Ms Hamill said the option “simply hadn’t occured to me” and she would need to receive instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions.
“My personal opinion is it would not occur,” she said.
Ms Hamill told the Court of Appeal she would provide a note later that day with a response. This was not aired in open court.
Mr Lynn has spent the past four years in custody after his arrest in November 2021 — 20 months after the couple disappeared.
The keen huntsman led police to Mr Hill and Ms Clay’s remains after four days in a police station where he was intensely questioned.
Much of what he said over nine hours of recorded interviews was later barred from reaching the jury, after Justice Croucher found detectives had sought to undermine his lawyers advice through a “withering barrage of oppressive and improper inducements”.
Mr Lynn has maintained he was innocent of murder, giving an account, first to police and then secondly to the jury, of two accidental deaths occurring in the context of a fight with Mr Hill.
“I’ve made some poor decisions but murder, as I understand it, I’m innocent of,” he told detectives at the end of a three-day interview.
Mr Lynn admitted at trial he torched the couple’s campsite in the Wonnangatta Valley and dumped their remains on the side of the Union Spur Track while returning home to Melbourne.
He returned twice in the following months, where he incinerated Ms Clay and Mr Hill’s bodies.
During his appeal against both his conviction and sentence, heard over two days in October, Mr Lynn argued prosecutors breached fairness rules that govern trials and that the jury’s verdict indicated they travelled down an “impermissible pathway” to reach the verdict.
His barrister, Dermot Dann KC, said it was likely the jury had found Ms Clay was killed to cover up Mr Hill’s death, a line of reasoning they were expressly barred by Justice Croucher from following unless they were satisfied beyond reasonable doubt Mr Hill was murdered.
“This was done as an all or nothing case, there was never a pathway laid out by the prosecution on how you could have a split verdict,” he said.
“What’s on the line is the prospect of dying in jail.”
Mr Lynn had also argued his sentence — seven years above the standard sentence — was too tough and should be revisited.
Victoria’s top prosecutor, the Director of Public Prosecutions Brendan Kissane KC, acknowledged there were issues with the way the trial prosecutor ran the case, but maintained the result was not a miscarriage of justice.
He argued the jury was entitled to reject Mr Lynn’s account and find him guilty of Ms Clay’s murder using the evidence of her death and his post-offence conduct.
“It was well open for the jury to find the accused not guilty in relation to Mr Hill but guilty in relation to Ms Clay,” he said.
Mr Lynn will return to court on January 28 for a mention.
The Office of Public Prosecutions said they did not wish to comment on Thursday’s decision.
