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High Country killer Greg Lynn has won a high-stakes appeal over his conviction and 32-year prison sentence for the murder of Carol Clay.
Court of Appeal justices Karin Emerton, Phillip Priest and Peter Kidd on Thursday unanimously agreed Lynn’s conviction should be quashed and ordered that he face a retrial.
Russell Hill and Carol Clay.
Emerton said that “serious irregularities in the course of the trial were not capable of being remedied”.
Lynn arrived in court appearing relaxed and chatting to his legal team, before being led into the dock. He was sporting a fresh haircut, suit and hiking shoes.
Lynn was found guilty of murdering Clay, 73, at a remote campsite in the Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020. He was cleared of the murder of Clay’s camping partner, Russell Hill, 74.
The former airline pilot had pleaded not guilty, claiming the elderly pair both died accidentally and he had panicked, bundling Clay and Hill’s bodies into the back of his trailer and hiding their remains before later returning and burning them.
Justice Michael Croucher said Clay’s murder was violent, brutal and horrific.
In October, Lynn’s defence team said prosecutors “chickened out” when grilling him at the trial and played outside the rules so often that his conviction should be quashed.
Greg Lynn pictured in late October outside the Court of Appeal.Credit: Jason South
Defence barrister Dermot Dann, KC, argued five grounds of appeal, saying the prospect of his client dying in jail was possible.
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Dann said prosecutors broke the rules that govern fair conduct of criminal trials “so thick and fast” that he was unable to keep up. In total, the trial judge noted 17 breaches.
These breaches, Dann said, might have led the Supreme Court jury down an “impermissible pathway” in arriving at their verdict.
“The prosecutor went mad,” Dann said.
Jurors had deliberated for seven days before they rejected Lynn’s claims that Clay had been accidentally shot in the head during a struggle over a firearm.
Director of Public Prosecutions Brendan Kissane, KC, told the Court of Appeal that the defence had failed to establish a substantial miscarriage of justice had occurred.
Any departures from the rules of fairness, Kissane argued, were adequately remedied by the trial judge, so much so that his directions to the jury were “favourable to the accused in the extreme”.
Also in court on Thursday were family members of Clay and Hill, senior police including Inspector Tony Combridge, who formally oversaw the homicide squad investigation, and lead investigator Sergeant Brett Florence.
Lynn was remanded in custody.
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