Jury in Greg Lynn trial return to court to ask fresh questions (2024)

The jury set to decide its verdict on former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn has returned to court for the second time to ask a series of questions.

The former Jetstar pilot has pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court of Victoria to the murders of secret lovers Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, in the Wonnangatta Valley, in Victoria's Alpine region, on March 20, 2020.

As the jury of 12 entered its second week of deliberations, the group returned to ask Justice Michael Croucher for clarification on how they might return a possible verdict.

The first question related to Justice Croucher's final address to the jury at the conclusion of the trial in which he provided members with a series of points of law they needed to adhere to in order to reach their verdict.

The first related to the prosecution's failure to provide a motive for why Lynn allegedly murdered Mr Hill.

The jury had heard police believe Mr Hill was killed first and Ms Clay was murdered because she allegedly witnessed her lover's death.

The court heard the juryasked for clarification on whether it had to reach the same verdict for each charge of murder.

'The prosecution do not have to prove motive in order to prove the crime of murder,' Justice Croucher reminded them.

'On order to prove murder the prosecution have to prove beyond reasonable doubt the four elements of murder I've already instructed you about.'

Justice Croucher said the absence of any motive on Mr Hill's alleged murder was one of the many circ*mstances they could take into account in determining their verdict.

'The absence of the evidence of motive may well be the factor that causes you to reach the view you're not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt Mr Lynn murdered Mr Hill in the first place,' he said.

'If you're not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt Mr Lynn did not murder Mr Hill, the prosecution accepts rightly there would be no motive for him to murder Ms Clay.'

'These are directions of law... it's not correct to say that the direction is to say to you "you must find Mr Lynn guilty on both charges or not guilty on both charges".

'Rather... you must consider each charge separately according to the evidence which applies to.'

The jury also askedJustice Croucher to remind them about his instructions on reaching a unanimous verdict and what would happen if they could not.

While the judge was happy to provide the reminder, he told the jury he would only answer the second part when and if the time came.

'Well, you've not reached that point yet,' he said.

'However if of course you reach a point where you can not unanimously agree on your verdicts then you would send me a note and I would discuss it with counsel and then we'll answer that question at that point.'

Justice Croucher asked the jury to return to their deliberations once again, urging them to ask any questions they liked to reach a unanimous verdict.

Last week, the jury asked to watch recordings of both Lynn and ballistics expert Senior Constable Paul Griffiths giving their evidence in court.

While Lynn has always denied murdering the couple, the jury heard he freely admitted to cleaning up the alleged crime scene and destroying the evidence.

'It was despicable,' Lynn conceded.

'All I can say to the families is that I am very sorry for all of your suffering that I've caused... yes I should be punished for it. For what I did.'

The jury heard Lynn had offered to plead guilty to the destruction of evidence before going on trial, but it had been rejected by the prosecution.

'I am innocent of murder,' he said. 'I am innocent (of manslaughter too). I haven't killed anyone.'

Dressed neatly in a suit and dark-rimmed spectacles, the former pilot spoke in a cool and calm manner as he took the jury through the bloody details of what police allege was cold blooded murder.

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