The legal team for accused double murderer Gregory Lynn says the Crown has embarked on a flawed prosecution of the former airline pilot, and repeatedly broke court rules to pursue its case against an innocent man.
“You can’t have any confidence about their submissions. It’s been a shambles, no other word to describe it, and we’re only just starting,” defence barrister Dermot Dann, KC, told a Supreme Court.
Clockwise from left: A sketch of the campsite Greg Lynn drew for police, Lynn giving evidence at his trial last week, Carol Clay and Russell Hill.
An animated Dann spent much of his closing address to the jury dissecting the evidence against his client and the prosecution case that has been presented to the court over the past five weeks.
Among the parts of the Crown case Dann took issue with were 17 points of particular contention, which he described as the “lowlights” of the case against Lynn.
Dann labelled the prosecution case a series of desperate and ill-fated tactical manoeuvres that at times broke the rules of fairness when his client had been truthful to police.
The prosecution, though, says it is open to the jury to reject the accused man’s version of events and find that Lynn killed Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, with murderous intent at Bucks Camp in the Wonnangatta Valley on March 20, 2020. Lynn, 57, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of murder.
Defence barrister Dermot Dann, KC, outside the Supreme Court.Credit: Wayne Taylor
“That is how desperate this prosecution case has become. Outside the rules, making things up, all on this big stage. It just smacks of a prosecution case that’s gone off the rails, heading down a giant cliff,” Dann said.
He said it had been left to the defence team to raise with prosecution witnesses a litany of alleged issues including Hill having a previous history with guns on his father’s farm, Hill being medicated for his mental health, and that a family member, Gary Hill, died in a deer hunting accident in the Wonnangatta Valley in 1995.