More than a year after a former pilot was convicted of killing a missing grandmother and burning her remains, his appeal against the verdict and sentence will be heard.
Greg Lynn, formerly of Caroline Springs, was in June 2024 found guilty of 73-year-old Carol Clay’s murder, in a split jury verdict where he was acquitted of killing her lover Russell Hill, 74.
The pair had been camping in the same remote site, in Victoria’s high country, as Lynn when they both went missing in March 2020.
Lynn was charged with two murders and took the case to trial, admitting he burned their bodies but maintaining the deaths were accidental.
He gave evidence to the Supreme Court jury that he struggled over his shotgun with Mr Hill when it accidentally discharged, and shot Mrs Clay in the head.
Mr Hill died after a struggle with Lynn over a knife, and Lynn was found not guilty of his murder.
Lynn put the bodies of Ms Clay and Mr Hill into a trailer, before driving them to a remote bush track.
He admitted he returned seven months later, after the COVID-19 lockdown lifted, to burn their remains into more than 2000 bone fragments.
He was jailed for 32 years, with a non-parole period of 24 years, by Justice Michael Croucher in October 2024.
The ex-Jetstar pilot’s legal team flagged Lynn would appeal the conviction and sentence soon after the jury delivered their verdicts.
His barrister Dermot Dann KC will argue the prosecution had conducted the trial unfairly and there were inconsistencies in the jury’s split verdicts.
Lynn, 59, will be brought in from prison for the appeal.
The hearing before Justices Karin Emerton, Phillip Priest and Peter Kidd will begin on Friday at the Court of Appeal in Melbourne.
