Greg Lynn: Convicted killer pilot to return to court for appeal of conviction over Carol Clay’s murder in missing campers case

Killer pilot Greg Lynn has arrived to the Melbourne courtroom where his long-awaited appeal is set to play out as the room fell into a hushed silence. Wearing a dark suit, the convicted murderer smiled and nodded at his barrister, Dermot Dann KC, as he entered the room holding a clear folder of paperwork, handwritten notes and photographs. Lynn, 59, was found guilty by a jury on June 25 last year of murdering Carol Clay, 73, in Victoria’s remote high country more than four years earlier. Ms Clay had vanished while camping with Russell Hill, 74, in the Wonnangatta Valley in March, 2020, before Lynn led police to their incinerated remains some 20 months later. Lynn was acquitted of Mr Hill’s murder by the jury. He was jailed for a maximum of 32 years last October for what Justice Michael Croucher labeled a “a violent, brutal, horrific death effected with a weapon designed to kill”. Now, just over a year after Lynn was sentenced, he appeared in the Court of Appeal shortly before 10.15am to appeal both his sentence and conviction. Lynn was seated directly in front of a packed public gallery containing about 30 members of the media, family of Mr Hill and Ms Clay, and members of the public. A notable absence was Lynn’s wife, Melanie Lynn, and his two sons. Lynn is represented by Dermot Dann KC, while the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions Brendan Kissane KC is representing the Crown. President of the Court of Appeal Justice Karin Emerton is set to hear the appeal alongside Justice Phillip Priest and Justice Peter Kidd. The former Jetstar pilot maintains he did not murder anyone and both deaths were accidental before he embarked on a cover up fearing he would be wrongly blamed. In appeal paperwork filed last November, Lynn outlined five grounds his lawyers would rely upon. Lynn will argue Crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu breached fairness rules during the trial by launching a “sustained attack” on his account of two accidental deaths. He will also argue the way prosecutors approached the evidence of ballistics expert Senior Constable Paul Griffiths was a “serious departure” from the rules that govern fair trials. The third and fourth grounds of appeal against Lynn’s conviction relate to how the jury reached their verdict, arguing they travelled down an “impermissible pathway” in their deliberations and that the verdict is “unsafe and unsatisfactory”. Lynn will further argue his 32-year sentence — seven years above the standard sentence of 25 — is “manifestly excessive”. In a letter penned to Victoria’s Supreme Court last year, Lynn wrote he was “perplexed” by the jury’s verdict. “However, I accept that my decision to flee the scene and attempt to disappear, and all of my actions from that effect were selfish and callous in the extreme, causing family and friends of both Carol Clay and Russell Hill much grief and stress for 20 long months,” he wrote. Presently, Lynn will be eligible for parole in 2045 aged 79.