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National

Victoria Police made thousands of secret recordings of Greg Lynn, who's accused of murdering campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay

A hearing into the alleged murders of two campers in the Victorian High Country has revealed police made more than 5,000 covert recordings of the accused man during their investigation.

Former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn has been charged with the murders of Russell Hill and Carol Clay who disappeared from the Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020.

Mr Lynn is accused of murdering the pair and disposing of their bodies in bushland outside of Dargo.

Mr Lynn plans to plead not guilty and is contesting the charges.

A committal hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court is running to determine if there is enough evidence for the case to go to trial.

Leading Detective Constable Daniel Passingham from the Missing Persons Squad told the court he was asked to monitor police recordings of the accused.

Detective Passingham told the court he personally listened to more than 3,000 recordings of Mr Lynn.

He said he had access to "5,287 recordings" that were between one minute and 30 minutes taken from Mr Lynn's car.

Detective Passingham said that was the number of recordings made by the time of his arrest in November 2021.

This morning the court granted a suppression order applied for by Mr Lynn's lawyers.

That suppression order means the media cannot report on the contents of those recordings, or the contents of Mr Lynn's statement or interview with police.

Police ballistics expert gives evidence

Earlier in the day, the court also heard from police ballistics expert Leading Senior Constable Paul Griffiths.

He told the court he was given a scenario by investigators last year, that included Mr Hill and Mr Lynn scuffling, a gun going off accidentally and hitting a mirror on Mr Lynn's car, before going on to hit Ms Clay.

He told the court he examined three different possibilities — that Ms Clay was squatting, that she was stooped or that she was standing and had studied the possible trajectory of the bullet.

Leading Senior Constable Griffiths concluded it was plausible that Ms Clay could have been struck while standing towards the rear of Mr Hill's car, that it was unlikely she was hit while squatting and he "couldn't rule out" that she could have been hit while stooped over.

But under questioning from defence counsel Dermot Dann KC, the ballistics expert was asked whether he could provide enough evidence and information to properly make a judgement.

He was questioned about the testing occurring with the use of the "wrong gun" and a lack of information about where exactly Ms Clay might have been standing.

"The difficulty for you sir, is your testing on the 23rd February had to make a whole lot of assumptions because there were so many variables involved," Mr Dann said.

The hearing is ongoing.

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