Appeal judges have posed a critical question to prosecutors: will they pursue a manslaughter charge against former pilot Greg Lynn following his acquittal in the murder of one camper, while being convicted in the death of another?
In a divided decision reached in June 2024, the jury found Lynn guilty of murdering 73-year-old Clay at a secluded campsite. However, he was acquitted of murdering Russell Hill, Clay’s 74-year-old clandestine partner.
Lynn, who continues to assert his innocence, confessed to relocating and burning the bodies, while maintaining that their deaths in 2020 were accidental.
His defense attorney, Dermot Dann KC, has previously criticized the jury’s conviction, labeling it as unreliable and founded on “unsatisfactory grounds.” He argued that the prosecution had orchestrated an unfair trial.
Dann accused trial prosecutor Daniel Porceddu of bending the rules and asserted that Porceddu had “chickened out” during cross-examination of Lynn before the jury.
However, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Brendan Kissane, contested the appeal, arguing that the trial maintained fairness and that the defense should have sought to dismiss the jury if they believed the proceedings were compromised.
Kissane did not appear at the court today for Lynn’s challenge of his prison term because he had another commitment, prosecutor Kathryn Hamill said.
Appeal court justices Phillip Priest and Peter Kidd asked Hamill to speak to the director about several questions in the event Lynn faces a retrial, but stressed the court had not yet come to any conclusions on Lynn’s appeal prospects.
“One would assume on any retrial that verdict or acquittal of murder in relation to Hill could not be traversed?” Justice Priest asked.
“Yes that’s accepted,” Hamill said.
However, she said she would need to speak to Kissane and provide a note to the court about three other questions.
This included whether the prosecution would offer manslaughter as an alternative offence over the death of both Hill and Clay in the event of a retrial.
Hamill said her “personal opinion would be that would not occur” in relation to the manslaughter charge over Hill, for whom Lynn was acquitted of murder.
But she asked to be given time to discuss this with Kissane and said she could not answer the query in relation to a manslaughter charge over Clay’s death.
Justice Kidd asked Hamill whether the prosecution would rely on a motive for Clay’s killing, if there were a retrial, which Hamill also took on notice.
She was given until the close of business today to hand the court a note in response to the judge’s questions.
On Lynn’s sentence appeal, Dann argued his client’s 32-year term, with a non-parole period of 24 years, for Clay’s murder was “manifestly excessive”.
He said this was because of a number of limitations and mitigating factors put to sentencing judge Michael Croucher during pre-sentence hearings.
Dann argued Lynn’s age, circumstances in custody, remorse, rehabilitation and co-operation with police were not properly taking into account as a mitigating factors.
He claimed Lynn’s sentence was “in the highest echelon of sentences in the standard sentence era, for a single murder committed without pre-meditation”.
The appeal judges reserved their decision on Lynn’s appeals and will return at a later date.
