A man accused of murdering two campers in a remote part of alpine Victoria returns to court on Monday, with a decision set to be made on the release of “explosive” material and evidence likely from the detective in charge of the investigation.
Greg Lynn, a former airline pilot, is charged with murdering Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, who went missing in March 2020 while camping in the Wonnangatta Valley, east of Melbourne.
Lynn, 56, faced the Melbourne magistrates court last week for a committal hearing, which will determine whether there is enough evidence for him to stand trial.
The hearing continues on Monday.
It is expected that evidence from three witnesses will be heard, including from the police informant and a police reconstruction expert.
Magistrate Brett Sonnet will first rule on an application for a suppression order. The court heard on Friday that Lynn’s lawyer, Dermot Dann KC, applied for the order to suppress the contents of all interviews and statements given by Lynn to police.
The order was not opposed by the prosecution, but lawyers for multiple media outlets argued against it.
Dann said it was likely the media would view the contents of the interviews as “explosive”, but reporting on their contents could prejudice future proceedings against Lynn.
Dann told the court earlier in the week that a legal challenge to the admissibility of the police interviews was likely.
Detective Sen Con Abbey Justin, who, along with her colleague, was the first police member to speak with Lynn about the campers, gave evidence she recorded Lynn without his knowledge in July 2020.
Lynn provided his first statement to police after that conversation, Dann told the court. He was later formally interviewed by police over several hours.
Lynn was arrested in November 2021 and charged with the murders. The remains of Hill and Clay were recovered soon afterward.
Among the material that has been released to the media during the committal hearing was the police summary, which Sonnet cautioned gave an overview of the police case but did not comprise all their evidence.
He said much of the summary was contested by Lynn, who was expected to plead not guilty at the completion of the hearing.
According to the summary, police allege Lynn returned to the crime scene months later and attempted to burn Hill and Clay’s bodies, in one of several attempts he made to conceal the alleged offending.
Recording devices were used by police to gather further evidence, the summary states, including of Lynn allegedly talking to himself about the deaths of Hill and Clay at home and while camping.
The statement of a police forensics officer that was also released to the media showed detectives investigating the alleged double murder asked the officer to investigate whether they had occurred after a specific scenario: that Lynn may have been annoyed by a drone flown by Hill and Clay, and confronted them about it before retreating to his own campsite. Hill allegedly then grabbed Lynn’s gun from his car, the pair wrestled for control of the weapon, causing it to discharge and shoot Clay dead, and, as the fight progressed, Lynn stabbed Hill to death.
No information regarding how the alleged murders occurred was contained in the police summary.
The hearing has also heard from multiple witnesses who worked or camped in the region at the time Hill and Clay disappeared.
