The former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn has been sentenced to a minimum of 24 years in prison for the murder of a 73-year-old camper in Victoria’s high country, with a judge describing the killing and the subsequent attempted cover up as “brutal” and “horrific”.
In the supreme court in Melbourne on Friday, justice Michael Croucher sentenced Lynn, 58, to a maximum 32 years in prison for the murder of grandmother Carol Clay at a remote campsite in the Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020. He must serve at least 24 years before he could be eligible for parole.
A jury in June found Lynn guilty of murdering Clay, after a five-week trial. He was acquitted of murdering her fellow camper Russell Hill, 74.
He had pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, with his lawyers arguing in court that Clay and Hill were accidentally killed in a struggle involving a knife and a gun.
Lynn had admitted in court that, after the couple’s deaths, he had “panicked” and tried to destroy evidence, including by torching Clay and Hill’s campsite and burning their bodies.
Croucher said he was unable to determine the motive for the murder, while prosecutors had argued Lynn had killed Clay because she was a witness to Hill’s death.
He said he was satisfied that there was a “brusque interaction” between the men prior to Clay’s death, and that Lynn had intended to kill her by shooting her in the head.
Croucher said Clay’s death was a “very grave example of murder”.
“It was a violent, brutal, horrific death, with a weapon designed to kill,” he said.
“There is no suggestion that Mrs Clay posed any threat to Mr Lynn.”
Croucher said Lynn’s crime was “aggravated significantly” by the fact Lynn concealed Clay’s body in a remote location, later returning to burn it to “almost nothingness, just fragments”.
“This was an appalling thing for her loved ones to learn. Mr Lynn must have known that these actions, once revealed, would cause Mrs Clay’s loved ones no end of grief and distress,” he said.
Croucher said Lynn also refused to reveal the location for 20 months, causing “agonising uncertainty” for her family.
“This was just a terrible thing to do.”
In a sentence that took almost an hour and a half to deliver, Croucher fought back tears as he acknowledged Hill’s family, who he said were “left in an excruciating legal limbo” as a result of the verdict.
He said no sentence would “lessen the grief or ease the pain of Clay’s loved ones”.
“The sentence to be imposed is not a measure of Mrs Clay’s life. It can’t be,” he said.
Lynn’s letter to judge
In a letter of contrition to Croucher that was read to the court on Friday, Lynn said he was “disappointed and perplexed” about the verdict, maintained his innocence and flagged his intention to appeal.
But he apologised for his conduct after the couple’s death.
“I accept that my decision to flee the scene and attempt to disappear … was 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,” Lynn wrote.
He also apologised to his former employer and his family for the “pain, shame and suffering they have endured”. Lynn’s wife and son, who were present in court during the trial, did not attend Friday’s sentencing.
“I don’t ask for forgiveness, I am simply sorry for what I have done,” Lynn wrote.
Croucher said he accepted Lynn’s apology for his treatment of the couple after their deaths was “genuine”, but given the “dreadful nature” of his conduct, it would have little sway on the sentence.
Clay and Hill were having a 15-year affair at the time of their deaths, Croucher said, having rekindled their teenage romance “later in life”.
Clay was separated from her husband but Hill was still married at the time of their deaths and his family were not aware of the relationship, the court heard.
Croucher said Clay’s friends and family had previously told the court she was “an adored grandmother, someone who looked after her neighbours, an advocate for her children and an expert fundraiser for the less fortunate”.
He said Hill was a keen amateur radio enthusiast and had become a “drone buff” and pursued both hobbies when he regularly went camping.
He said in addition to the loss of her husband, Hill’s wife, Robyn, had “suffered the hurt and humiliation” of having the affair shared told to the “world at large”.
Croucher praised both her and her daughter for giving evidence in the trial with “immense dignity”.
“I think that just as one person to another, as a matter of common decency, I should acknowledge their plight, their agony, their suffering, and I do,” he said.
Lynn could be eligible for parole in about two decades, when he will be aged 79, as he has remained in custody since his arrest in November 2021.
