A former Jetstar pilot accused of murdering two elderly campers in 2020 is due to take to the witness stand and give evidence in the double murder trial on Thursday.
Gregory Stuart Lynn, 57, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, at a remote camping site in the Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020
Lynn’s lawyer, Dermot Dann KC, told the Victorian supreme court his client would be the defence’s only witness. The prosecution closed their case on Wednesday afternoon, confirming they would not call further witnesses.
Earlier on Wednesday, Det Sgt Brett Florence, who interviewed Lynn as part of the investigation, gave evidence that a 60 Minutes episode into Hill and Clay’s disappearance, which aired in November 2021, was part of the police’s media strategy to elicit information from the public.
Police used a listening device to secretly record Lynn and his wife, Melanie, as they watched the program, the court heard.
The episode features an image of a blue Nissan Patrol and trailer captured by roadside cameras in the Wonnangatta Valley region, that Victoria police wanted to identify as part of their investigation.
The court heard Melanie Lynn commented to her husband that the vehicle “really looked like his car and trailer” while watching the program on 13 November 2021.
Lynn was captured by CCTV footage removing a black awning from the passenger side of the vehicle days later on 19 November, the court heard.
Under cross examination by Dann, Florence agreed that parts of Lynn’s story he told detectives during his police interview were true, including that part of Clay’s head was missing after her death.
“That is a man being brutally honest with you,” Dann said.
But Florence said not everything Lynn had told police was true.
Earlier this week, the jury were shown an excerpt of Lynn’s videoed interview with police.
In the video, he told police he went through a “decision-making pathway” drawn from his experience in the cockpit when considering how to cover up the campers’ deaths.
The prosecution has alleged Lynn killed Clay and Hill with murderous intent, but does not know the circumstances or motive behind the alleged murders. Prosecutors alleged Hill was killed first by unknown means and Clay was later shot in the head.
Dann previously told the court that 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 is that Clay was shot in the head after he and Hill struggled over control of the former pilot’s shotgun after a dispute.
Lynn told police that Hill then came at him with a knife, screaming “she’s dead” before another struggle in which the knife went through the chest of Hill while they were on the ground.
Last week, the court heard Hill told his family he was no longer seeing Clay after being given an ultimatum in 2006 by a neighbour to tell his wife about the affair he was having. Hill’s wife of more than 50 years, Robyn Hill, said she told police he was missing on 25 March, after he failed to tune in to any other radio meetings.
Hill tuned in to high frequency radio almost every night at 6pm to speak with other radio enthusiasts and friends, the court previously heard.
The jury last week was also shown photos of a crime scene where Lynn burned the bodies. Dann said Lynn had told police he set the bodies alight with a small amount of kerosene.
The trial continues.
