Killer ex-pilot’s begins new court move

The former Jetstar pilot jailed after a jury found he killed an elderly woman while on a hunting trip has lodged the paperwork needed for his highly-anticipated appeal.

Gregory Stuart Lynn, 58, was sentenced to a maximum term of 32 years imprisonment last month after he was found guilty of murdering Carol Clay, 73, at trial.

Handing down his sentence on October 18, Justice Michael Croucher said he was unable to determine the exact events leading up to Ms Clay’s murder.

But, he said, shooting her in the head with a shotgun was “violent, brutal and horrific” and Lynn’s treatment of the couple’s bodies afterwards was “appalling”.

Following the sentencing, Lynn’s barrister Dermott Dann KC told reporters outside of court he had been instructed to appeal against the conviction.

“There’s nothing to say today, we’ll just wait for the Court of Appeal,” he said.

Under Victorian law, Lynn had 28 days to file the appeal – a window that ended on November 15.

On Tuesday, the Victorian Court of Appeal confirmed the paperwork had been lodged late on Monday, along with an extension of time application.

Ms Clay had been camping with her lover Russell Hill, 74, in Victoria’s High County when the pair crossed paths with Lynn at Bucks Camp on March 19, 2020.

Days later, they would be reported missing by their respective families which led to the discovery of the burnt remains of their campsite.

It would be more than 20 months before Lynn, then a training captain with Jetstar, was arrested by heavily armed police in November 2021.

In an interview room at Sale Police Station, Lynn gave police an account of two accidental deaths and his panicked decision to hide his presence, fearing he would be wrongly blamed.

He led investigators to a fallen tree off Union Spur Rd where he burnt and scattered the elderly couple’s remains.

At trial earlier this year it quickly became apparent Lynn’s version of events was the only one the jury would hear as prosecutors said they did not know exactly what happened.

But they argued Lynn’s efforts to destroy the crime scene and burn their bodies could only be explained by murder and his account was a carefully constructed fiction.

The jury delivered a split verdict after days of deliberations in June; Lynn was acquitted of Mr Hill’s murder but found guilty of Ms Clay’s.

At a presentence hearing the following month, Lynn’s barrister Dermot Dann KC flagged he held “grave concerns” the jury had used faulty reasoning to reach their verdict.

At trial, prosecutors alleged Mr Hill was killed first with Ms Clay eliminated as a witness, while in Lynn’s account Ms Clay was shot first accidentally as the two men wrestled over the gun.

But jurors were warned if they were not satisfied Mr Hill was murdered then there would be no motive for Ms Clay’s death.

Mr Dann argued the jury had gone down an improper pathway, saying the “long-term future of that guilty verdict must be seen as being in great doubt”.

He also foreshadowed an argument that prosecutors had conducted the trial unfairly, breaching rules of procedural fairness 20 to 25 times in their closing address.

In a letter to the court, Lynn said he was disappointed and perplexed by the jury’s verdict as; “I have not killed anyone”.

“However, I accept that my decision to flee the scene and attempt to disappear, and all of my actions from that effect were selfish and callous in the extreme,” he wrote.

“With heartfelt regret for my own behaviour, I humbly apologise regardless. I don’t ask for forgiveness, I am simply sorry for what I have done.”