Camper’s ‘rude’ act aired in court

A contractor working in Victoria’s High Country when two elderly campers were allegedly murdered has told a jury he thought a drone flying overhead was “a bit rude”.

Former Jetstar pilot Gregory Lynn is facing trial in Victoria’s Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to the murders of Russell Hill and Carol Clay in March 2020.

Prosecutors allege the 57-year-old murdered the pair “without lawful justification” after a dispute with Mr Hill, likely over his drone or footage captured on the drone.

Mr Lynn, through his barrister Dermot Dann KC, has asked the jury to accept his account that the two deaths were “tragic accidents”, hiding their bodies and burning their campsite after panicking over fears he would be wrongfully blamed.

Mr Hill, 74, and Mrs Clay, 73, vanished a day after arriving at the Wonnangatta Valley on March 19 for a camping trip.

Despite extensive searches through the remote Alpine National Park at the time, no trace of the pair was discovered until police located more than 2100 individual bone fragments in bushland hours away in November the following year.

Weed sprayers tell jury Mr Lynn was ‘friendly’

Two contractors who were spraying weeds in the Wonnangatta Valley when the deaths occurred told the jury they had a “friendly interaction” with Mr Lynn on March 18.

The men, Robert Williams and Walter Gibbs, said they were working near the Dry River camp when the accused man approached and asked where the best place to camp was.

“I asked can you stay back 10m,” Mr Williams said.

“He looked crook, I thought he might have had the Covid … he said he didn’t and was hunting deer.”

Both men told the jury they’d recommended Bucks Camp as the best place to camp in the Valley, later seeing his Nissan Patrol parked there when they were returning to camp.

Two days later on March 20, Mr Williams said he was again out spraying weeds when a “snazzed-up” Toyota LandCruiser with a man and a woman inside approached.

He said people visiting the Valley would often stop for a chat, but the driver, a man, “zoomed” past him, straight into Bucks Camp.

“He looked grumpy,” he told the jury.

“Just the way he accelerated past me, it was like he was on a mission.”

The same afternoon, both men said they saw a drone hovering over their camp after they’d knocked off work.

“I looked up and there was a drone flying very low, it circled the camp a couple of times,” Mr Williams said.

“I thought it was a bit rude, yeah.”

Hunters detail sightings of “older couple”

On Wednesday afternoon, two hunters from New South Wales beamed into the courtroom remotely, as they gave evidence of seeing an older couple in the Wonnangatta Valley.

Goran Miljkovic and Damir Jovar told the jury through a Serbian interpreter they spent a few days camping, fishing and foraging wild mushroom in the Alpine National Park.

On March 19, 2020, the two men said they’d gone on a day trip to Mount Howitt to explore the area and were on their way back to camp in the afternoon when they came across a white Toyota Landcruiser with a stainless steel canopy driving slowly ahead of them.

The description of the vehicle matches Mr Hill’s vehicle, which was found damaged days after the pair vanished, the jury was told.

“It looked like grandma and grandpa out for a drive,” Mr Miljkovic said he joked.

Both men said they watched the car pull into a camping spot and noticed another vehicle there — a blue station wagon matching Mr Lynn’s vehicle.

Mr Miljkovic said he and Mr Jovar stopped and picked a “large quantity” of wild mushrooms, before later stopping to chat with some people weed spraying.

“We stopped to ask if they were familiar with the type of mushrooms and whether they were edible because we didn’t know,” he said.

The following day the two men said they left camp to return home but stopped for a deflated tyre.

While searching for a compressor, the two men told the jury they saw the elderly couple from the day prior walking nearby.

“I noticed them, they waved in my direction and I waved back,” Mr Miljkovic said.

Prosecutors allege Lynn killed the pair “without lawful excuse”, likely after a dispute with Mr Hill over his drone or footage on his drone in the evening of March 20.

“The precise circumstances of the (alleged) killings are not known. Nor is the motivation,” Crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu told the 15-person jury in his opening remarks.

Mr Dann is arguing that both died “tragic accidental deaths” after Mr Hill snatched his gun about 11pm.

Mr Dann told the jury the defence case was that Mr Hill confronted Mr Lynn for hunting deer too close to their camp and the gun discharged, killing Mrs Clay as the men wrestled.

Mr Hill then came at Mr Lynn with a knife but died after falling on it during a scuffle, the defence argues.

Mr Dann said his client made a series of terrible choices fearing he would be wrongly blamed after the incident, including dumping and burning the bodies.

He also said it was not in dispute that Mr Lynn took the drone and the couple’s phones, later disposing of them.

The jury was told Mr Lynn led police to the remains after his arrest in November 2021.

The trial, estimated to run for four to six weeks, continues.