Jury hears former Jetstar pilot’s graphic account of his fight to the death when secret lovers were allegedly murdered – as grim details of the elderly couple’s final moments are revealed in court

Former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn told detectives how an elderly woman was accidentally shot dead as he struggled with her secret lover, who was then fatally stabbed as his video interview with police was played to a jury for the first time.

Lynn, 57, has been acquitted in the Supreme Court of Victoria of the murders of Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, in the Wonnangatta Valley, Victoria’s Alpine region, on March 20, 2020.

A video recording of the interview showed Lynn dressed in a gray windbreaker, goggles and surgical mask as he recalled the fateful late-night police claim he had killed the couple.

He claimed he was involved in a deadly struggle with Mr Hill as they fought for control of a shotgun when it went off and killed Ms Clay.

The jury heard Lynn approached Mr Hill where a scuffle quickly took place over the firearm.

‘I confronted him. ‘Give it back. What are you doing,’ and he said he was going to take that to the police,” Lynn said.

“When I came up to him he had the magazine in the shotgun at this stage, he pulled the action back and let a few rounds go into the air. ‘

Greg Lynn’s recorded report to police has been shown to a jury

Lynn told police that the side mirror (circled) was blown off in the same explosion that killed Carol Clay

Detective Sergeant Brett Florence was tasked with interviewing Greg Lynn. On Monday he gave evidence in Lynn’s trial

Lynn claimed he ran for his life before crawling back to Mr Hill from the shadows.

“I stayed in the shadows and got closer,” Lynn said.

“To try to disarm him, I jumped up, grabbed the barrel of the gun with my right arm, turned around so I was facing him… I had the left hand on the butt, the right hand on the barrel and we struggled .

“The shotgun was pointed this way and fired. My hand was not on the trigger, but on the barrel… it wouldn’t let go, it fired. It went through the left rear view (mirror) and killed Mrs. Clay.”

Lynn claimed he hid the shotgun on Mr Hill and let it go, only to be confronted by him again moments later.

‘He comes towards me with a knife in his right hand and a clenched fist in his left hand. He swings first with his left hand, I blocked it,” Lynn said.

‘He swings the knife with his right hand, I broke his wrist and pulled my left arm over his right and he pushed me back to the ground and the knife went into his chest.

‘He rolled over and when I got off him he crawled a little and then stopped moving. And I thought ‘what am I going to do?’

Lynn claimed he checked both campers for signs of life, but soon realized they were both dead.

“And from here I panicked. You know, that’s my gun. One person is dead, he is dead now too. And I will be found guilty of this,” Lynn said.

The jury heard Lynn worked quickly to cover up the bloody crime scene.

“It was very messy so I moved the tables and things into the tent,” Lynn said.

The jury heard Lynn set fire to the campers’ tent before taking their bodies away in his caravan.

The jury will watch just under four hours of the interview, which was conducted by Detectives Brett Florence and Daniel Passingham of the Missing Persons Unit at Sale Police Station on November 23, 2021.

Lynn, in a mild and calm tone, told police he had hoped to simply forget what happened in the bush and get on with life.

“I just wanted it all to go away and just move on and never think about it again, but that’s really not going to happen,” Lynn told detectives.

“I just tried to keep my head down and just get on with life and just forget about it. But it caught up with me.”

Fire damage was noticed on Mr Hill’s Landcruiser. Lynn admitted to burning his campsite and later his body

A ring believed to have belonged to Carol Clay was found among the shattered remains of her body.

Lynn told police he wished he had come forward immediately after claiming the “tragic accident” happened.

‘I wish I would have come forward now too, but I just wanted it to go away. No matter what happened, I was screwed.”

The jury heard Lynn calmly describe what was left of the elderly campers after he returned to the crime scene months later to complete the removal of their bodies.

‘The snow is gone. It’s November now and I thought, ‘I have to get this done because I just don’t want to have to deal with it again,'” he said.

“I drove back there and just set them on fire. And there’s nothing there. You’ll see where it is, but you won’t find anything there. There’s nothing to bury. I’m sorry.

“That’s the truth and that’s the best I can give you. It won’t be much relief for the family. There is nothing to see, nothing to find.

‘Go and have a look. You will find evidence of the fire. It is what it is.’

Lynn described the moment he first saw Mr. Hill and Ms. Clay as they headed to a campsite near his at a location known as “Bucks Camp.”

‘I saw them pull up. “I remember it coming to a stop at quite a high speed and she looked quite shocked in the car,” he said.

Lynn told detectives that while he would have preferred if Mr. Hill had camped further away, he didn’t make a big deal about it.

“There were hundreds of other places to camp, but if you want to camp here, it’s a free country and you can do whatever you want,” Lynn said.

‘Fine. Yes, I would have preferred it alone, but it doesn’t bother me.’

While the first night ended without incident, Lynn claimed that the next morning Mr Hill told him a strange story about ‘a colleague’ who had recently been killed on a deer hunt.

“He was grinning when he said it,” Lynn said.

The 12-gauge shotgun Lynn claims Mr. Hill stole from him before accidentally shooting his secret lover

Carol Clay was shot in the head before Mr Hill died from a knife wound to the chest, Lynn claims

Later that day, Lynn claimed he was surprised to see a drone hovering above him and being flown by Mr Hill.

“That was crazy…I thought ‘what is this all about?'” Lynn said.

The jury heard that Lynn decided to confront Mr Hill about the drone later that evening.

“I walked over and asked him why he was using the drone and he said he didn’t like deer hunters and that he had video of me hunting near the camp now,” Lynn told police.

Mr Hill is said to have told Lynn he planned to take the footage to police.

“I think the whole point of it was he just wanted me to go,” Lynn said.

The jury heard Lynn retreated to his own campsite for dinner before turning up the volume on his car radio.

‘Yes, I was annoyed. “I didn’t do anything about it, but I did turn up the stereo and play loud music, which was childish,” he said.

It was about 10 p.m. when Lynn claimed he heard the doors of his Nissan Patrol open.

His shotgun and ammunition were stored inside.

“I saw Mr. Hill walking away from the car. He had the Barathrum shotgun in his hands and he had the magazine that I stupidly loaded there and he was walking back to his car,” Lynn said.

Then, he said, the deadly fight for control of the gun began.

The process continues.

Greg Lynn leaves the wilderness after his deadly confrontation in March 2020