Former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn will appeal against his conviction for the 2020 murder of elderly camper Carol Clay, a Victorian court has heard.
After a five-week trial, a supreme court jury last month found Gregory Stuart Lynn guilty of murdering Clay and acquitted him of murdering Russell Hill in Victoria’s high country in 2020.
The supreme court had heard Hill, 74, had been camping with 73-year-old Clay, with whom he had been having an affair, when they both died.
Lynn’s lawyer, Dermott Dann KC, flagged the appeal in the supreme court on Friday.
He said Lynn maintained his innocence in respect to both murder charges.
“He maintains that he told zero lies in that [police] interview … that was played to the jury,” he told the court on Friday.
“He maintains that he’s never killed any person at any time at any place, anywhere, ever.”
He said the defence was not convinced beyond reasonable doubt in respect to the jury’s guilty verdict. He said Justice Michael Croucher would need to determine what pathway the jury took to arrive at the guilty verdict.
Dann told the court that the appeal would argue the prosecution conducted the trial unfairly.
“One side breaks the rules, 20-25 times. We say it’s beyond argument that one side has acted unfairly,” he said.
“The long-term future of that guilty verdict must be seen as being in grave doubt.”
Dann also told the court Lynn was attacked in prison during the trial and was placed in isolation.
He said the defence was considering whether a psychiatric report was needed to detail the impact of Lynn’s time in custody and the separation from his family.
Dann said the defence had a “number of concerns”, but had to respect the jury’s verdicts and the sentencing process.
He also said media coverage of Lynn after the verdict was handed down was “flooded with inadmissible material”, gossip and “unsubstantiated allegations”, and linked to other crimes and deaths.
“We’ve reached the stage where all of that has combined to pollute and poison the well of justice, such that if the court of appeal did order a retrial, what’s going to happen then?” he said.
Dann said the chances of a retrial being conducted fairly were “nonexistent”.
He also flagged that the defence could apply to stay Lynn’s sentence during the appeal process, but noted it would be “extremely rare” for the application to be made and granted.
Police had in November 2021 charged Lynn with two counts of murder over the deaths.
Lynn was camping at Bucks Camp, a remote site in the Wonnangatta Valley, when he was joined in the valley by Hill and Clay in March 2020.
Prosecutors had alleged Lynn killed Hill and Clay with murderous intent, possibly over a dispute related to Hill’s drone, but did not know the exact circumstances or motive behind the alleged murder, the jury was told. It was alleged Hill was killed first by an unknown means and Clay was later shot in the head.
The crown prosecutor, Daniel Porceddu, had told the court Hill was most likely killed first, in part because it was unlikely Clay “would have posed any threat to the accused, other than being aware of Mr Hill’s violent death”.
But Dann argued the deaths were the result of a tragic accident and that his client had “made a series of terrible choices” to cover them up. Lynn’s account was that Clay was shot in the head after he and Hill struggled over control of the former pilot’s shotgun. Hill died after a subsequent struggle resulted in a knife going into his torso.
Lynn was remanded in custody for another hearing on 12 September.
