The three-hour police interview with former pilot and convicted murderer Greg Lynn has been released by the Supreme Court.
Speaking with detectives in a cold interview room at Sale Police Station, Lynn was filmed detailing to police what he believed happened to missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay.
The 57-year-old faced a five-week trial in Victoria’s Supreme Court charged with two counts of murder and was this week found guilty of Clay’s murder.
He was found not guilty of Hill’s murder.
Lynn claimed the two deaths were accidental, but admitted burning the crime scene and destroying their bodies.
“It was wrong of me to hide those bodies like that. I should have just gone straight to police,” Lynn said in the interview.
“I didn’t want to do it, it was a horrific thing I had to do. I was sick the first couple of times.
“I just wanted it to go away and just to move on and to never think about it again.”
Lynn told the court during the trial he had been out deer hunting when he returned to threats from Hill that he had drone footage of Lynn hunting too close to the campsite that he would turn into police.
Later that evening, he said Hill took a shotgun and ammunition from Lynn’s car.
Lynn claimed he went to get his gun off Hill, who shot off a few warning shots before turning the gun on Lynn.
The court heard Lynn and Hill struggled over the gun, Lynn claimed, when another shot went off and hit the side of Hill’s ute mirror, which ricocheted off and went into Clay’s head.
Shot fragments were later found, proving that Clay died in a shooting.
“He came at me with a knife. I grabbed him… pulled him in and he was still coming at me and he came down on top of me and it went down into his chest.
“And then I rolled over and stood up, he got up and tried to crawl away.
“From here I panicked and I thought ‘well that’s my shotgun, there’s one person dead… and he’s dead as well now.’
“I’m going to be found guilty of this.”
The former pilot can be seen in the police interview drawing on pieces of paper before he gave more details of the night.
“It was very messy… and that’s why I put the tables and things inside the tent,” he said.
“And packed everything up and as I left I lit the fire.”
At one point, detectives stopped the interview to try and find the remains, but when they got there, it was foggy and hard to see, so they sent videos to Greg Lynn so he could help direct them to the burial site.
“That’s the truth and that’s the best I can give you. It’s not going to be much relief for the families. There’s nothing to see. Nothing to be found,” Lynn said.
Justice Michael Croucher banned the viewing of the interrogation during the trial because they used oppressive conduct towards Lynn.
However Lynn’s lawyer asked for parts of the interview to be allowed back in.
“I haven’t behaved well, I’ve made some poor decisions but murder as I understand it I’m innocent of,” Lynn said.
Lynn, wearing a suit and blue jumper, remained silent on Tuesday as the two verdicts were read aloud, raising his eyebrows after learning his fate.
The maximum penalty for murder is life in prison.
Lynn will return to court on July 19 for a mention where dates will be set.
