Airline pilot Greg Lynn has reaffirmed plans to appeal after being handed a 32-year jail term for the “brutal and horrific” murder of camper Carol Clay.
Gasps rang out across a packed room in the Victorian Supreme Court as Justice Michael Croucher handed down the lengthy jail sentence this afternoon.
Lynn, 58, blinked and stared straight ahead as he learnt he would not be eligible for parole for 24 years.
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Lynn was found guilty in June of shooting Clay in the head at a Victorian high country campsite in March 2020.
He then placed her body – and the body of her lover Russell Hill – into a trailer and drove them to a remote bush track.
Lynn returned seven months later after the COVID-19 lockdown lifted to burn their remains into more than 2000 bone fragments.
The former Jetstar pilot maintained his innocence, claiming the deaths of both Clay and Hill were accidental, but the jury found him guilty of murdering Clay.
He was acquitted over Hill’s death.
Justice Croucher described the killing as a very grave example of murder, noting Clay was a defenceless woman who posed no threat to Lynn.
“It was a violent, brutal, horrific death, effected with a weapon designed to kill,” the judge said.
Justice Croucher could not make findings in relation to Lynn’s motive to kill, nor the order in which Hill and Clay died because of the jury’s split verdicts.
“The prosecution theory – that it is likely the two men argued first, which somehow led to Mr Hill’s death, and subsequently to Mrs Clay’s murder – may well be right,” the judge said.
“But I am just not satisfied to the requisite standard that that is what happened.”
Justice Croucher said Lynn’s decision to hide and then burn the bodies “into almost nothingness” was a significant aggravating feature, and showed the pilot’s moral culpability was very high.
“This was just a terrible thing to do, hence my conclusion this is a very grave murder,” he said.
Justice Croucher noted the “profoundly moving” statements from Clay’s loved ones, who remembered her as an adored grandmother and tireless advocate.
The judge also broke down in tears as he acknowledged Hill’s family, including his wife Robyn who was seated in the courtroom.
While they were not considered victims in the eyes of the law due to acquittal, Justice Croucher said it was clear they were also in pain.
“As one person to another, as a matter of common human decency, I should acknowledge their plight, their agony, their suffering – and I do,” the judge said.
He also took into account Lynn had led police to the remains and admitted his “despicable” actions after the murder.
This included a letter to the court, where Lynn apologised to the Clay and Hill families, as well as emergency service workers, his former employer and his sporting clubs.
The judge said the admission and apologies “tempered” the aggravating post-offence conduct, albeit modestly.
Lynn’s prospects of rehabilitation were also reasonable and the sentence should not be crushing, Justice Croucher said. But the jail term should justly reflect the seriousness of the crime and deter others from committing murder, the judge added.
As he was leaving court, Lynn’s barrister Dermot Dann KC confirmed his client’s plan to appeal.
Dann told the court in July the conviction would be challenged, claiming the prosecution had conducted the trial unfairly and there was inconsistency in the jury’s two verdicts.
“There’s nothing to say today, we’ll just wait for the Court of Appeal,” he told reporters today.
“We have 28 days to lodge the appeal and we’re instructed to lodge that appeal against conviction so we’ll just have to see how that goes.”
The case’s lead investigator, Brett Florence, gave reporters a thumbs-up as he walked out of court.
The Hill and Clay families chose not to comment.
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