Court lifts suppression order on Greg Lynn's past interactions with police, death of first wife
Greg Lynn was last year convicted of murdering Carol Clay but acquitted of killing her camping companion Russell Hill. (Facebook)
In short:
A years-long suppression order on former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn's past dealings with police has been lifted.
Media outlets fought to overturn the gag order after Lynn was last year convicted of murdering High Country camper Carol Clay, but the order was instead broadened.
The Supreme Court of Victoria has since quashed the order after a further challenge.
Victoria's Supreme Court has lifted a years-long suppression order barring reporting on Greg Lynn's dealings with police before the deaths of elderly campers Carol Clay and Russell Hill.
Media outlets, including the ABC, fought in court to overturn the order and reveal Lynn's past police interactions and the circumstances of his first wife's death.
Lynn was last year found guilty of murdering Ms Clay but was acquitted over the death of her companion Mr Hill in remote bushland in March 2020.
It came decades after Lynn's first wife, Lisa Lynn, was found dead in the front yard of her Mount Macedon home in October 1999.
A coroner later found she died from the combined toxicity of alcohol and drugs in her system. A police investigation failed to uncover any suspicious circumstances.
In the lead-up to Lisa's death, the couple was estranged and police took out a five-year intervention order after Lynn used a sledgehammer to break into Lisa's house.
In 2024, Lynn's barrister told the Supreme Court that Lynn twice breached the order and escaped from police custody after telling officers he would retrieve a daily organiser hidden in bushland near the home.
"When they asked him to go and get it, instead of getting it he just kept walking to the train station and that was said to be the escape from custody," barrister Dermot Dann KC said.
Lynn dodged a conviction and was fined $300.
Lynn recounted the escape from custody differently, according to a 1999 police statement obtained by the ABC.
He said after being arrested for breaching the intervention order, he "went with some detectives to retrieve some property" owned by Lisa.
"I took the opportunity to escape into the bush. I don't know why I did this except that I had just had enough and wanted to get away," his statement from the time said.
"I made a phone call from a nearby service station about four hours later and was subsequently re-arrested."
Greg Lynn arriving at the Supreme Court of Victoria in September last year. (AAP Image: Joel Carrett)
News outlets had been prevented from reporting Lynn’s past interactions with police because of a suppression order imposed by a magistrate in 2023.
But a Supreme Court judge quashed the order earlier this year after identifying an "obvious" error in the way it was imposed. A two-month grace period before that decision took effect ended today.
The lifting of the suppression order means the ABC can publish an extensive investigation into the death of Lynn's first wife, which her friends and family say was not properly examined.
Gag order imposed
In January 2023, prosecutors sought to convince Magistrate Brett Sonnet there was enough evidence to send the former Jetstar pilot to trial over the deaths of Ms Clay and Mr Hill in the Wonnangatta Valley.
During the legal argument, Magistrate Sonnet imposed a gag order, banning reporting of "any contact with police" Lynn had prior to the deaths of the elderly campers.
Magistrate Sonnet said reporting on Lynn's prior police dealings would cause a "real and substantial risk of prejudice" to an upcoming trial.
The magistrate said the order would expire after a trial and "any relevant appeal period".
Carol Clay and Russell Hill disappeared while camping in Victoria's High Country in 2020. (Supplied: Victoria Police)
After a jury found Lynn guilty of murdering Ms Clay last year, the ABC, The Age and the Herald Sun returned before Magistrate Sonnet to have the order lifted.
At that November 2024 hearing, the media lawyers argued the suppression order was no longer necessary because Lynn's trial was over
However, in an unusual step, the magistrate kept the order in place and widened it to include "information relating to the death of Lisa Lynn".
The news outlets lodged an appeal in the Supreme Court.
In October, Supreme Court Justice Peter Gray quashed the suppression order due to what he called an "obvious" jurisdictional error.
"In my view it is unsatisfactory to leave the varied suppression order in operation in circumstances where: its interpretation is uncertain; it is an order in compulsory terms, directed to the world at large; and contraventions of such orders can attract criminal consequences," the judge ruled.
However, Justice Gray set a 60-day grace period before his order took effect to allow time for Lynn's legal team to lodge a new suppression order application.
No new application had been lodged before the grace period ended.
Lynn is currently appealing against the decision of a jury that found him guilty of murdering Ms Clay, who was shot in the head during a struggle at a campsite, as well as the sentence he received.
The legal challenge was heard by Victoria's Court of Appeal on October 31, but a decision is yet to be handed down.