A dispute involving the use of a drone and deer hunting escalated until two elderly campers were accidentally killed, the lawyer for airline pilot Gregory Stuart Lynn has told a Victorian supreme court murder trial.
Lynn, 57, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Russell Hill and Carol Clay in the state’s alpine region in March 2020.
His lawyer, Dermot Dann KC, told the court on Tuesday that the deaths were the result of a tragic accident, and Lynn had “made a series of terrible choices” to cover them up.
The prosecutor, Daniel Porceddu, said in his opening address that police do not know the circumstances or motive behind the alleged double murder at Bucks Camp, a remote site in the Wonnangatta Valley.
Dann said his client had given a thorough account to police as to the events which led to the couple’s death, and it was the prosecution’s role to prove that account was wrong beyond all reasonable doubt.
He spent much of his opening to the jury outlining what Lynn had told police about the deaths of Hill and Clay.
Lynn told police he and Hill had conversed, including about deer hunting and the latter’s drone, Dann said. Hill also told Lynn that someone close to him had been accidentally killed by a deer hunter.
Hill then accused Lynn of hunting too close to camp, and said that he planned to take drone footage proving this to police, the court heard.
Lynn told him he was “talking nonsense”, returned to his own camp for dinner and decided to turn his car’s stereo up to annoy Hill.
Lynn told police that he then became aware of noise coming from his car, and saw Hill walking away with one of his guns and magazines, Dann said.
He asked for the gun back, to which Hill responded “fuck off”, Dann said. Lynn told police that Hill lost his temper and said he was going to take the gun to police too.
According to the account given to police, Hill fired a shot into the air when Lynn attempted to retrieve the gun. Lynn said he retreated for cover, and told police he was “scared shitless”, but decided he had to get his gun back.
He said a “chaotic scene” then unfolded, with the pair struggling for the gun and Clay shouting: “Russell stop it.”
Hill had his finger on the trigger during the struggle, according to the account Lynn gave police, and the shotgun then discharged, with the shot going through the side mirror of Hill’s car and ricocheting into Clay’s head.
The court heard that Hill then let go of the gun to go to Clay. Lynn told police he fired the gun in the air to “make it safe”. He then went back to his car to return it and to turn the music off.
Lynn told police that Hill then came at him with a knife, screaming “she’s dead”.
There was another struggle that saw the knife go through the chest of Hill while they were on the ground, Lynn told police.
Dann said Lynn then “disentangled himself” from Hill, went to Clay and found that she was dead. Lynn returned to Hill, and found he was also dead.
Dann said that the jury could “rest assured” that the prosecution would try to dismantle this series of events.
He repeatedly referred to the “venerable courtroom”, saying it was the evidence that unfolded before them here that mattered and not what someone may say at a pub or a barbecue or a dinner party.
There was no dispute about what the prosecution alleges Lynn did after the deaths, Dann said.
“He made a series of terrible choices. He’s got two people dead, he fears he’s going to be wrongly blamed for their deaths.
“His life as he knew it would be ‘screwed’, [which] was the word he used to police.”
Porceddu earlier told the court that Lynn had taken hunting gear, including a 12-gauge shotgun, to Bucks Camp.
Lynn was camping near the river when he was joined in the valley by Hill and Clay.
Porceddu told the court that while police did not know the exact circumstances behind the deaths, it would be alleged there had been a dispute – possibly related to Hill’s drone – that led to Lynn killing the couple.
The drone had not been recovered, he said, meaning the dispute may have been related to Hill flying it, or to images it had captured.
The prosecution will allege 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”, Porceddu said.
He said it was not known how Hill was killed.
The conduct of Lynn after the alleged murders demonstrated he had tried to conceal evidence, the court was told.
Porceddu said this conduct included moving the bodies of the deceased, likely by placing them in Lynn’s camper trailer.
He said it was alleged Lynn also placed items in the couple’s tent and started a fire to destroy it. He was also alleged to have burnt an area next to the couple’s Toyota LandCruiser, where blood from Clay’s injuries is suspected to have been.
Lynn is alleged to have taken their phones and drone, packed up his campsite and then taken off with the bodies and other items.
He is alleged to have dumped the bodies on the side of Union Spur Track near Dargo.
Lynn later placed an advertisement on Gumtree to sell the camper trailer and other items, Porceddu said, and the trailer has never been recovered.
Police allege the trailer was disposed of to avoid the possibility it could be linked to the murders. Lynn was also alleged to have painted his car from dark grey to beige and removed a distinctive side awning, the court heard.
Lynn later returned again to the site and burned the bodies, the court heard.
The court also heard police obtained warrants to listen to the accused on his phone and in his home, and at one point he had been heard discussing the case with his wife, Melanie, after it had featured on the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes.
The court heard from the first two witnesses in the trial later on Tuesday: Michael Dower, the area chief ranger for Parks Victoria, and Blair Anson, who interacted with Hill during an earlier camping trip.
The hearing continues on Wednesday.
