Former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn still in control after alleged murders of Russell Hill and Carol Clay

By William On Jan 17, 2023

Sitting behind protective glass and guarded by two burly guards, former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn still looks like a man in control of his own destiny.

Lynn, 56, headed a preliminary hearing at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, which could lead to trial in the High Court of Victoria at the conclusion of next week.

For two days he has listened carefully to the evidence presented in court, taking notes and talking with his lawyer after receiving folders with new information containing the transcripts of his recorded calls from prison.

Lynn is accused of murdering Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, inside a craggy mount in the Wonnangatta Valley of the Victorian Alps in March 2020.

Former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn when he appeared at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday

Greg Lynn is seen with his wife Melanie, who is a flight attendant, with the couple reunited at work.

Russell Hill (pictured with his missing drone) is believed to have filmed campers in and around the area where he was allegedly killed.

Lynn, elegantly dressed in a suit and perfectly knitted tie, looked around the courtroom, knowing full well that the court draftsmen were studying him.

Sitting directly in front of her glass cage, attorney Chris McLennan gave her a confident wink.

Lynn is being defended in court by Melbourne lawyer Dermot Dann, KC, who has represented some of the most high-profile defendants Melbourne has seen.

His support flight attendant wife Melanie Lynn has been conspicuously absent from the Melbourne courtroom, instead tuning in to a video link that appears on a television screen that Lynn can see.

Mrs. Lynn keeps her camera off, leaving Lynn to look at only his wife’s name.

He faces life in prison if convicted of the alleged murders. But Lynn isn’t confident of spending his life behind bars.

‘Killed’ campers revealed to be ‘childhood sweethearts’

Two campers allegedly killed by Gregory Lynn in a remote national park were “childhood sweethearts” who kept their relationship secret for 15 years, a court has been told.

In a summary of the case against Lynn provided to the Melbourne Magistrate Court, police said Hill and Clay had rekindled a relationship some 15 years earlier and used to go camping to “spend time together”.

Both were childhood sweethearts who separated and had children with other couples, according to documents filed with the court.

Hill had been married to another woman for 51 years at the time of his death, and police facts presented in court revealed that his wife believed he had gone camping alone.

“Those close to them believe they kept their relationship a secret to avoid distress for the Hill family,” the police statement of the facts said.

NCA

On Tuesday, his defense of the crime was finally aired in public, at least in part.

The court heard Lynn tell detectives that Hill had approached him while the pilot was armed with a shotgun.

The couple allegedly struggled for control and the gun discharged, striking Ms Clay in the head, the court heard. It is unclear how Mr. Hill is alleged to have died.

Lynn claims Carol Clay (pictured) was shot and killed when her secret lover Russell Hill tried to grab her shotgun

According to a summary of the indictment, investigators allege that Lynn argued with the campers before killing both of them.

“The circumstances of their deaths and the defendant’s subsequent conduct are consistent with the defendant having intent to cause death or at least cause each of them genuinely serious injury,” the indictment summary read.

The badly burned remains of the elderly couple were found by detectives from the Victoria Police Missing Persons Squad on 30 November 2021, just days after Lynn’s arrest.

Timeline of tragedy in the case of Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, who were found dead in a rugged bush in the Wonnangatta Valley of the Victorian Alps in March 2020

On Monday, weed sprayer Robert Williams told the court that he believed he saw Hill in the desert in the days before his alleged murder.

He described Mr. Hill as a “grumpy old bastard” who buzzed him with a buzz.

“They were taking me out,” he told police.

The Homicide Squad detectives had made a big deal about the fact that Hill had entered the desert with a DJI Mavic drone, which he had just purchased.

They had appealed to the public for help finding him in the long months the elderly couple remained missing.

Williams said he saw the drone hovering over other people’s camps, which he believed were being filmed by whoever was in control.

Mr. Williams waved while filming him and circled over him several times.

He watched it hover over and around various camps for 35-40 minutes, before losing sight of it near Wonnangatta Cemetery.

He didn’t see who was operating it, but he thought it was an intrusion.

“You are going there to have a peaceful camp and someone is flying a drone over you,” he told the court on Monday.

Williams believed he saw Hill walk past him on March 20, the day detectives believe he breathed his last.

The burnt out remains of Russell Hill and Carol Clay’s camp in the Victorian Alps

The experienced Bushman claimed that a man in his 70s had passed him at a breakneck pace.

“He rushed by without stopping or even saying hello to me, which I thought was a bit strange,” he told police.

‘I thought ‘damn grumpy old man’ must be on a mission to get somewhere.’

Sydney campers Damir Javor and Goran Miljkovic had seen the couple while they were parking their vehicle at a campsite believed to be shared by Lynn.

The couple had been coming to the area for years to get away from the big smoke.

Miljkovic told the court that he often heard the silence of the night pierced by the distinctive sound of gunshots.

“You can hear gunshots at night which I assume are poachers trying to kill deer for their antlers,” he told police.

The preliminary hearing continues next week.