Former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn will face a new trial over the death of Victorian camper Carol Clay after Victoria’s Court of Appeal set aside his murder conviction. The decision reopens one of the state’s most closely watched criminal cases and means the matter is heading back to the Supreme Court.
What the court decided
A panel of three appeal judges ruled there had been “serious irregularities” in Lynn’s original trial and found there was a “substantial” likelihood of a miscarriage of justice, per 9News. Justice Karin Emerton, the Court of Appeal President, announced that his conviction for Clay’s murder would be quashed and a fresh trial was ordered.
Lynn’s 32-year sentence, which included a 24-year non-parole period, no longer stands because the conviction has been set aside. He has been remanded in custody and is expected to return to the Supreme Court for a directions hearing in late January.
How the original case unfolded
Clay, 73, and her long-time friend Russell Hill, 74, disappeared from Buck’s Camp in the remote Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020. They had been camping at the same site as Lynn in Victoria’s High Country when they vanished, sparking an extensive search that later became a homicide investigation.
Lynn was charged with two counts of murder and went to trial, where he admitted burning the pair’s bodies but denied murdering them. In June 2024, a jury found him guilty of Clay’s murder but acquitted him over Hill’s death, and he was sentenced in October 2024.
Lynn has always maintained both deaths were accidents following a confrontation at the campsite involving a knife and one of his guns. He told the court he panicked afterwards, burned the bodies and destroyed the campsite, but insisted those actions did not mean he intentionally killed the pair.
His lawyers appealed, arguing the verdict was “unsafe” and that the trial was unfair, partly because of how prosecutors challenged his credibility in their closing address. The appeal judges found there were serious problems with how the case had been run and ruled those issues were significant enough to amount to a substantial miscarriage of justice.
What happens next?
The case will now return to the Supreme Court of Victoria for a new trial over Clay’s death. A directions hearing has been listed for January, when a timetable for the retrial is expected to be set.
During earlier appeal hearings, the judges also asked prosecutors whether they might consider pursuing manslaughter charges in any new proceedings.
Lynn remains in custody as the legal process continues.
Lead image: 9 News
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