A Supreme Court Justice said he is open to the possibility of a re-trial of accused high country killer Greg Lynn to commence in the second half of the year as he refused his bid for bail. The 59-year-old former pilot faced the Supreme Court of Victoria on Thursday to hear his bail application rejected by Justice David Beach. Lynn was seeking to be released from custody for the first time since being charged with the murders of Wonnangatta Valley campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay in 2021. It’s alleged Lynn killed the pair following separate struggles over a knife and a rifle at Bucks Camp on 20 March, 2020. He admitted to moving the pair’s bodies to remote bushland and returning at a later date to burn them. Lynn was convicted with the murder of Ms Clay and ordered to serve 32 years jail in 2024, but acquitted from murdering Mr Hill. A Court of Appeal ruling late last year quashed his murder conviction and ordered a re-trial for the murder of Ms Clay, which opened the door for Lynn to seek release from jail. Defence counsel Dermott Dann KC said his client had met exceptional circumstances for release due to his vulnerability in custody, a “weak” prosecution case and a significant delay in a retrial due to “prejudicial” media coverage. Mr Dann argued a fair retrial wouldn’t be possible until at least 2028. In Justice Beach’s judgement, he said the court was in a position to hear Lynn’s re-trial commencing in August this year. “While any delay is undesirable, the delay and prospects of further delay in this case… do not clear the hurdle that the applicant is required to clear in this case,” he said. “While the counsel emphasised the uniqueness of the circumstances… it is to be remembered that it is not the exceptionality of circumstances which must be established, it is the exceptionality of circumstances justifying a grant of bail which must be shown to exist.” Justice Beach said with the prosecution yet to submit an updated case for the re-trial, there was no basis for labelling their case as weak. It was proposed for Lynn to be released to live with his son, who placed all of his savings down as a bail guarantee.
