Bombshell after camper murder verdict
Written by admin on July 19, 2024
Victorian High Country killer Greg Lynn has flagged he will appeal his murder conviction, a court has been told.
Lynn appeared for a pre-sentence hearing in the Melbourne Supreme Court on Friday.
“There will be an argument the prosecution conducted the trial unfairly. They broke the rules 25 times,” his lawyer Dermott Dann KC told the court.
“The law is littered with examples where retrials have been ordered.”
Lynn was convicted of the murder of Carol Clay, 73, and acquitted of the murder of her lover Russell Hill, 74, at a lengthy trial that ended in June.
Lynn pleaded not guilty to both charges at trial and maintains his innocence, arguing the deaths were both accidental.
Ms Clay and Mr Hill had gone missing in Victoria’s high country in March 2020, sparking a lengthy search that made national headlines.
Mr Dann said Lynn maintained he didn’t kill anybody.
“The long-term future of that guilty verdict must be seen as being in great doubt,” Mr Dann said.
“That will affect how this sentencing process plays out.”
He said the defence would now probe how the jury arrived at their verdicts, with Mr Dann proffering “two improper pathways”.
He said the jury could not have reached the conclusion Lynn killed Ms Clay after she witnessed an unlawful killing of Mr Hill.
“It’s going to require a bit more discussion than that but I understand the point,” Justice Michael Croucher said.
Justice Croucher adjourned the matter for a plea hearing on September 12, which may spill into a second day.
Lynn’s lawyers may advance a rare specific Criminal Procedure Act application, asking for the court to push back sentencing beyond an appeal.
Justice Croucher jokingly likened the general rarity of the applications being granted to he himself winning the Stawell Gift running race.
On Friday, Lynn sat taking notes throughout the hearing, wearing a baby blue turtleneck sweater, navy blazer and glasses.
Crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu asked the court for a four-week adjournment to finalise victim impact statements. In his submissions, Mr Dann said sentencing could be split so as to have one hearing for victim impact statements to be read, and another hearing for the actual sentencing.
Despite being standing room-only at times during the trial, there were only six people in the public gallery on Friday, and no family of Mr Lynn or the victims were present.
At trial, the jury heard Lynn’s lengthy police interview in which he described disposing of the pair’s remains.
Lynn had claimed the couple was accidentally killed in separate struggles involving a shotgun and a kitchen knife after a dispute with Mr Hill over his drone.
In court on Friday, Mr Dann said “unsubstantiated rumours, links to other crimes” in the media and “other forums” since the verdicts would “pollute the well of justice” should a retrial be ordered.
Lynn was attacked in prison near the end of the trial and was subsequently placed in isolation, his lawyer said.
