The ABSOLUTELY shocking reason love cheat camper was hospitalised before he and his secret lover were allegedly murdered

Murdered camper Russell Hill was hospitalized after suffering from depression and a distressing personal problem, a court has heard.

Former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn, 57, has been cleared in the Supreme Court of Victoria of murdering secret lovers Mr Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, in the Wonnangatta Valley, in Victoria’s Alpine region, in March 2020.

On Tuesday, Robyn Hill, Mr Hill’s wife, explained what she knew about how Mr Hill was put on antidepressants after an incident in the mid-1970s in the bush where he worked logging.

“I have to say that when he went to hospital he had a very enlarged penis and it wouldn’t go down, and that was apparently part of the depression,” she told the jury.

The court heard Hill occasionally took antidepressants in all the years that followed up to the day he was allegedly murdered.

Mrs Hill told the court her husband had long lied about his relationship with Mrs Clay, who Lynn claimed was shot by Mr Hill in a tragic accident before dying by falling on a knife during the ensuing struggle.

The jury heard that Mr Hill was Ms Clay’s first boyfriend but they had reconnected in the early 2000s.

Mrs Hill told the court she and her husband were going on holiday to Phillip Island, while Mrs Clay and her then husband were unaware of their secret relationship.

She told the court that she had known Mrs. Clay as long as her husband, who had told her that Mrs. Clay was her cousin.

It was a lie that Ms. Hill learned only after she saw Mr. Hill and Ms. Clay behaving “strangely,” such as going for walks together on those outings.

The secret relationship eventually came to a head when a neighbor of the Hills threatened to reveal Mr. Hill’s behavior to his wife.

The court heard Hill confessed to the relationship but assured his wife he would end the affair immediately – a lie he maintained until his alleged murder.

Ms Hill broke down in tears as Lynn’s lawyer Dermot Dann QC explained how Mr Hill continued to lie about his secret camping trips with Ms Clay.

Mrs Hill said she believed her husband was alone when he left for his final camping trip in the bush.

The jury heard that Mr Hill had told his entire family he would be alone.

The court heard Mrs Hill had bought her husband a new box of antidepressants, along with cans of bourbon and coke and a bottle of Bundaberg rum for the trip.

A bottle of wine was later also found at the burned campsite.

She also gave him $20 or $30 in cash so he could buy himself lunch.

Mrs. Hill agreed with Mr. Dann that her husband enjoyed sitting by the campfire in the evenings enjoying a few drinks.

On Wednesday, the court heard Lynn claimed Hill and Mrs Clay had died in a ‘tragic accident’.

Mr Dann told the jury that Mr Hill stole Lynn’s shotgun after he became enraged because Lynn was playing loud music the night he was murdered.

“He went to Mr. Hill to try to get the gun back — to take control of the gun,” Mr. Dann said.

The jury heard that when Lynn tried to wrestle the firearm away from Mr Hill, the gun went off and Ms Clay was hit in the head.

‘There was a struggle over the knife. Mr. Lynn is trying to defend himself – they are engaged in this struggle – and as part of that struggle the two men fall to the ground and the knife goes through Mr. Hill’s chest,” Mr. Dann said.

The court heard Hill was no stranger to shotguns and had owned two of the firearms himself in the past, which he kept in a wardrobe.

Those weapons were eventually handed over to authorities during a weapons amnesty, the jury heard.

The weapons had originally belonged to his father and Mr Hill had never obtained a firearms license himself.

Mr Hill’s daughter, Debbie Hill, told the jury she remembered her father going duck hunting when she was about 14 years old – probably in the mid-1980s.

“I just remember one being shot,” she told the jury.

The court heard Hill took a stand against guns after a tragic accident claimed the life of his relative.

Gary Hill was shot dead by his cousin in 1994 after being mistaken for a deer.

A plaque in Gary’s honor had been placed at a camp known as Hilly’s Camp, which was close to where Mr Hill and Mrs Clay were murdered.

“He felt they were unsafe,” Debbie told the court.

Debbie told the court she knew about her father’s relationship with Ms Clay “a long time ago”.

Like her mother, she recalled her father telling her in the mid-2000s that he was ending the relationship.

Mrs Hill told the court she married her husband in 1969 and initially lived in Lilydale before moving to a flat in Nayook, east of Melbourne.

Mr Hill had worked in the timber industry all his life, removing logs from the bush with a bulldozer.

He had helped create some of the routes he last rode in the Wonnangatta Valley, where he died.

Mrs Hill said she too would camp with her husband in the same rugged areas he took Mrs Clay.

“When Debbie was really little, we would camp there in a caravan around Christmas because he would make tracks,” she said.

Ms Hill had been living with him in Drouin, south-east Melbourne, at the time of his death.

The court heard that Mr Hill had taken up drone flying during his retirement, keen to get an aerial view of the landscape below.

She also talked about his love for amateur radio and how he talked about it with friends every day.

The court heard she briefly listened to radio conversations Hill made in the two days before he was allegedly killed.

“A lot of times I didn’t listen to that because it was only men’s business,” she said.

Mrs Hill said her husband appeared jovial before leaving on what would be his final adventure.

“He was happy because he enjoyed going there. It’s a lovely place,” she said.

The process continues.