Airline pilot Greg Lynn has reaffirmed plans to appeal after being handed a 32-year jail term for murdering missing camper Carol Clay.
Gasps rang out across the packed Victorian Supreme Court room as Justice Michael Croucher handed down the prison sentence on Friday afternoon.
Lynn, 58, blinked and stared straight ahead as he learnt his fate. He will be eligible for parole after 24 years.
A jury in June found Lynn guilty of shooting Mrs Clay in the head at a Victorian high country campsite in March 2020.
He then placed her body – and the body of her lover Russell Hill – into a trailer and then drove them to a remote bush track.
Lynn returned seven months later after the Covid-19 lockdown lifted to burn their remains into more than 2000 bone fragments.
The former Jetstar pilot maintained his innocence, claiming the deaths of both Mrs Clay and Mr Hill were accidental.
After a month-long trial, the jury found him guilty of murdering Mrs Clay but acquitted him over Mr Hill’s death.
In handing down his sentence, Justice Croucher described the murder as a grave attack against a defenceless 73-year-old woman.
“It was a violent, brutal, horrific death, effected with a weapon designed to kill,” the judge said in his sentencing remarks.
Burning the remains was a significant aggravating feature and showed Lynn’s moral culpability was high, Justice Croucher said.
“This was just a terrible thing to do, hence my conclusion this is a very grave murder,” he said.
Justice Croucher noted the “profoundly moving” statements from Mrs Clay’s loved ones, who remembered her as an adored grandmother and tireless advocate.
The judge also broke down in tears as he acknowledged Mr Hill’s family, including his wife Robyn who was seated in the courtroom.
While they were not considered victims in the eyes of the law due to acquittal, Justice Croucher said it was clear they were also in pain.
“As one person to another, as a matter of common human decency, I should acknowledge their plight, their agony, their suffering – and I do,” the judge said.
He also took into account Lynn had led police to the remains and apologised for his “despicable” actions after the murder.
The judge said that “tempered” the aggravating post-offence conduct, although only modestly.
Lynn’s prospects of rehabilitation were also reasonable and the sentence should not be crushing, Justice Croucher said.
But the jail term should justly reflect the seriousness of the crime and deter others from committing murder, the judge said.
As he was leaving court, Lynn’s barrister Dermot Dann KC confirmed his client’s plan to appeal.
Mr Dann told the court in July the conviction would be appealed, claiming the prosecution had conducted the trial unfairly and there was inconsistency in the jury’s two verdicts.
“There’s nothing to say today, we’ll just wait for the Court of Appeal,” he told reporters on Friday.
“We have 28 days to lodge the appeal and we’re instructed to lodge that appeal against conviction so we’ll just have to see how that goes.”
The case’s lead investigator Brett Florence gave reporters a thumbs up, while the Hill and Clay families chose not to comment to reporters.
