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A former Jetstar pilot accused of murdering two elderly campers in the Victorian high country has told a supreme court trial that he was struggling for control of his shotgun when it accidentally discharged
Gregory Stuart Lynn, 57, has taken the stand in the Victorian supreme court on Thursday, after pleading not guilty to murdering Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, at a remote camping site in the Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020.
The prosecution alleges he killed the pair with murderous intent but does not know the circumstances or motive behind the alleged murders. Lynn’s lawyer, Dermot Dann KC, previously told the court that the deaths were the result of a tragic accident, and that his client, a former Jetstar pilot, had “made a series of terrible choices” to cover them up.
On Thursday morning, under questioning by Dann, Lynn said he told the truth at all times during a 2021 police interview, which has been previously played to the jury. In that interview, Lynn said Clay was shot in the head by accident after a struggle with Hill.
Lynn began his evidence by talking about a diagram of the Wonnangatta Valley campsite that he drew and marked up for police. He then described the struggle over the shotgun that he says led to Clay being shot.
The former pilot told the court Hill took his gun from the back seat of his car and was “trying to keep the shotgun for himself and scare me off.”
“I don’t know if he intended to shoot me or not, probably not,” he said.
Lynn said at the time his shotgun discharged, he was “struggling with Russell Hill” for control of the weapon.
“Russell Hill had his back towards the bull bar, and I was pushing him against the bull bar,” he told the court.
Lynn said that when Clay was shot, he could only see her in his peripheral vision.
“I was aware of it. She was over there, and she was low,” he said.
“All I could say is that she was down low … to be low, she would have had to be crouching or kneeling, or getting up after falling.”
He said after the pair’s deaths, he used a torch to help him clean up the pair’s campsite.
“His camp was well illuminated but I still had a torch with me,” he said.
He described the scene after the deaths was “horrendous”, and said he used gloves to clean up. Lynn said he later cleaned his gun because he “wanted to get all trace of what had happened out of my life and off that gun.”
Lynn said he had not been drinking alcohol on the night of the deaths and that he did not witness Hill drinking.
The court previously heard that Lynn had told police that Hill came at him with a knife soon after Clay was shot, screaming “she’s dead”, before another struggle in which the knife went through the chest of Hill while they were on the ground.
Lynn will be the only witness called by the defence after the prosecution closed their case on Wednesday afternoon.
The trial continues.