A court has heard that a pilot admitted he was involved in the accidental deaths of Russell Hill and Carol Clay after an argument over hunting before making “terrible choices” by hiding their bodies.
Greg Lynn, 57, has pleaded not guilty to murder and manslaughter over the couple’s deaths while camping in Victoria‘s Alpine region on March 20, 2020.
However, his defence barrister told the jury of 15 on Tuesday he admitted to police that he was accidentally involved in their deaths.
“I’m innocent of murder, I haven’t behaved well, I’ve made some poor decisions, but murder, as I understand it, I’m innocent of,” Dermot Dann KC said, citing what Lynn told detectives in his interview.
He said Lynn – who had brought two guns with him – went hunting and when he got back to the campsite he became aware of a drone flying above that was operated by Hill.
About dinner time, Lynn went over to Hill’s campsite and asked him about the drone.
Hill voiced his issues with Lynn about deer hunting near the camping grounds and threatened to show police footage of Lynn, Dann alleged.
“Mr Lynn told him he was speaking nonsense,” he said.
He told the court Lynn went back to his campsite and started playing loud music from his car stereo to annoy Hill.
Lynn claims he heard some noises around his car and then saw Mr Hill walking away.
Believing he had his gun he followed Hill and asked him for it back.
“Mr Hill told him to ‘f— off’,” Dann said to the jury.
“Mr Lynn, you’ll hear and see, explains to police that Mr Hill lost his temper, that loud music had obviously disturbed Mr Hill late at night.”
Dann said Lynn went to get his gun back from Hill, when the 74-year-old fired it into the air.
Lynn said he took cover at the back of Hill’s car and tried again to get his gun back, with a struggle taking place.
The accused double murderer claimed in a “chaotic scene” Hill discharged the gun and a bullet went through the car mirror.
“That same shot, tragically, shot Mrs Clay in the head,” Dann said.
The court heard that Hill ran over to Clay, Lynn retrieved his gun and then Hill ran towards Lynn, with a knife, screaming “she’s dead”.
In a struggle over the knife, as Lynn tried to defend himself the knife went into Hill’s chest, Dann alleged.
He said Lynn then made “series of terrible choices” because he feared he would be blamed for the deaths.
“He tried to make this disaster somehow go away,” Dann said.
“He embarked on a series of actions which, he recognised in that record of interview, only made his whole situation so much worse.”
He said Lynn packed up the campsite and put the bodies in his trailer before setting fire to the couple’s site.
He then allegedly removed the knife Hill used, took the drone and the couple’s phones before driving into the night with their bodies.
Lynn went to the Union Spur Track, near Dargo, and buried the couple before driving home to Melbourne, Mr Dann said.
He admitted in the police interview that he returned to the site when COVID-19 lockdown ended, in May 2020, and then again November when he burned their remains.
