Pilot to learn fate over camper killing

Former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn is set to learn his fate for the murder of an elderly camper more than four years ago.

The 57-year-old will return before the Victorian Supreme Court shortly before midday on Friday as Justice Michael Croucher hands down his sentence for the murder of Carol Clay, 73, in March 2020.

Ms Clay vanished alongside her childhood sweetheart Russell Hill, 74, shortly after the pair travelled to the remote Wonnangatta Valley, in Victoria’s High Country, for a camping trip.

The couple, who dated in their youth before drifting apart, had reunited in their 60s and kept the relationship secret from Mr Hill’s wife Robyn Hill.

After a five-week trial earlier this year, the jury acquitted Lynn on a separate allegation of murdering Mr Hill. Lynn has flagged his intention to appeal the guilty verdict.

Victoria’s emergency services kicked off a massive search and rescue operation after the discovery of Mr Hill and Ms Clay’s torched campsite before missing persons investigators were called in to take over the following month.

It would be 20 months before Lynn was arrested as heavily armed special operations group members arrived at a remote campsite by helicopter and three more days before Lynn told detectives where they could find the couple’s remains.

An avid bushman, Lynn was staying at Bucks Camp on a hunting trip to stalk deer when the couple arrived.

He had been under police surveillance for more than a year after his car was inadvertently photographed leaving the valley on an automatic number plate recognition camera on March 21 as police drip fed details to the media to observe his reaction.

A week before his arrest, 60 Minutes aired a police sketch of a vehicle during a segment about the missing couple.

“It looks like your car … it really does,” his wife Melanie Lynn said.

“It’s not funny, sweet pea,” Lynn replied.

Just days later he was captured on CCTV removing a distinctive awning from the side of his vehicle as shown in the sketch.

Earlier this year. only Lynn’s account of what happened to the elderly lovers was put to the jury as prosecutors argued that while they did not know exactly what happened, his actions afterwards could only be explained by murder.

Taking the stand, Lynn said Hill had stolen his shotgun from his unlocked car after an earlier confrontation over hunting and drones.

Lynn said Ms Clay was shot in the head as the two men wrestled for the gun, while Mr Hill later fell on his own knife after attacking Lynn in grief.

He accepted his actions in burning the camp, hiding the two bodies and later returning to incinerate them were “despicable” but remained adamant he was not guilty of murder.

“My plan was to disappear and for a long time I thought I had,” he said.

Prosecutors said if Lynn’s version was to be believed he would be not guilty but argued it was a carefully constructed “complete fiction” to explain the deaths as accidental and should be rejected.

During a plea hearing last month, Crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu called for Lynn to receive a life sentence, describing the murder as “cold-blooded and callous”.

He argued it was consistent with the jury’s verdict that there was an “interaction of some description” between Lynn and Mr Hill, leading to his death.

“The offender was motivated by a desire to eliminate the deceased as a witness,” Mr Porceddu said.

Lynn’s barrister, Dermot Dann KC, argued if the jury had found his client’s motivation was to eliminate a witness they would have been in contravention of a jury direction.

“The jury were told and directed that if they found Mr Lynn not guilty of the murder of Mr Hill, the prosecution accepted there would be no motive for the murder of Ms Clay,” he said.

“Your Honour has to sentence this man on the basis that there is no motive that’s been established.”

Mr Dann has previously flagged plans to appeal, claiming he had “grave concerns” with the path the jury took to reach their verdict.