The spouse of former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn was notably absent from courtroom when a jury discovered him responsible of homicide.
Hand-in-hand with Lynn’s son Geordie – from the now convicted killer’s ill-fated first marriage – Melanie Lynn had been a continuing beacon of help all through her husband’s six week trial.
Day after day the flight attendant would march previous the ready media pack to take her seat inside courtroom three of the Supreme Courtroom of Victoria.
Ms Lynn would blow kisses at her shackled husband as he entered the courtroom and wave at him furiously from the highest tier.
In direction of the top of the trial, Ms Lynn and Geordie sat themselves immediately in entrance of Lynn, who sat within the jail dock simply metres from them each.
However on Tuesday, as the decision sealing Lynn’s destiny was introduced, solely Geordie braved the packed courtroom.
Alone, he was pressured to face the media horde that descended upon him as he left the Supreme Courtroom.
The jury heard Ms Lynn and her stepsons had no concept Lynn had been residing a secret double life immediately below their noses till police charged him with two murders.
Melanie Lynn and son Geordie attend courtroom collectively throughout Greg Lynn’s trial
Greg Lynn leaves the Supreme Courtroom of Victoria in Melbourne on Thursday
Lynn, 57, was on Tuesday discovered not responsible of the homicide of Russell Hill, 74, however responsible of murdering Carol Clay, 73.
He had managed to persuade his household he had nothing to do with the camper thriller, which the jury heard had been the topic of widespread media studies for greater than a yr earlier than the pilot’s arrest.
When a automotive matching the outline of Lynn’s was proven on 60 Minutes, the courtroom heard his spouse could not comprise her laughter such was the similarity.
‘She’s cackling like a hyena, it is likely to be stated,’ Justice Michael Croucher noticed whereas the jury was safely tucked away.
The audio had been captured on secret police listening gadgets in Lynn’s Caroline Springs residence and was by no means performed to the jury.
Wrapped in a doona inside the ice-cold interview room of the Sale police station, in Victoria’s Gippsland area, Lynn instructed detectives his spouse was clueless about what he had been as much as since his fateful run-in with the aged campers.
Whereas Lynn had all the time denied murdering the couple, the jury repeatedly heard he freely admitted to cleansing up the alleged crime scene and destroying the proof.
When Lynn was arrested in November 2021 in Victoria’s rugged wilderness, his spouse was caught utterly unexpectedly.
Geordie Lynn navigates previous reporters outdoors the Supreme Courtroom in Melbourne on Tuesday
Greg Lynn used a curler and strange home paint to disguise his Nissan Patrol
‘The automotive within the photographs did look loads like my automotive,’ Lynn defined to the jury whereas within the witness field.
‘It, um, it was my automotive. My household nonetheless did not consider that it was my automotive. Um, they thought that was fairly comical that it seemed so acquainted.
‘Nevertheless it definitely did appear like my automotive and eradicating the awning made it look much less.’
Video of Lynn eradicating his 4WD’s awning was additionally performed to the jury.
It confirmed Lynn pull into the driveway of his residence with a gasoline tank earlier than returning to take away the distinct awning that was hooked up to the automobile within the picture proven on 60 Minutes.
Lynn had already gone to the trouble to alter the color of his automobile and promote the trailer that featured on this system.
A picture proven to the jury captured Lynn utilizing an strange curler to color his automobile in June 2020 – simply months after police allege he murdered the campers.
His spouse had taken the supposed joyful snap later utilized in proof towards him.
‘Properly, she’s seen me paint it many occasions earlier than,’ Lynn instructed police throughout his report of interview.
Lynn stated he used Dulux Metallic Defend to carry out the paint job, with a ‘sandbank’ color he had beforehand purchased for the intention of portray his Jayco Hawk campervan.
‘So, you recognize, “Oh, right here he goes once more, he is portray his automotive”,’ Lynn instructed police.
On the time, Lynn had been stood down from his job as a pilot as a result of first of many Covid lockdowns.
Melanie Lynn makes her manner into the Supreme Courtroom of Victoria previous a ready digicam man
Greg Lynn eliminated the awning from his automotive after watching a 60 Minutes report that featured his 4WD
Melanie Lynn had been a flight attendant when her husband allegedly killed the campers
Lynn instructed police his spouse had been preoccupied with Victoria’s first lockdown when he returned from his fateful journey into the wilderness.
‘Once I got here again from that one, the entire world was simply falling aside. Yeah. That was on Sunday,’ he instructed police.
‘I would spoken to her on the Saturday, and he or she instructed me, “Greg, the entire nation goes into lockdown, that is absolute pandemonium”.
‘I stated, “I might inform one thing was up, ‘explanation for all of the vehicles simply driving each which manner”.’
Lynn instructed police his spouse was extra anxious about acquiring primary provides through the Covid lockdown than what he had been as much as out within the bush.
‘And she or he stated, “You’ll be able to’t purchase bathroom paper, you possibly can’t purchase cleansing stuff ‘trigger the shops are simply empty”,’ Lynn stated.
‘Once I arrived, she took me to the fridge, and he or she had up there a Covid plan that she’d taken from the paper, and spent the entire afternoon telling me what I missed the previous week because the world was unravelling.
‘In order that was how that day was spent – she did not ask something about my journey.’
Taking to the witness field, Lynn instructed the jury he nonetheless hadn’t talked to his household about what went on within the wilderness.
Geordie, Melanie and Elliott Lynn enter courtroom on Could 16
Carol Clay was shot within the head. What occurred to Russell Hill is simply recognized by Greg Lynn, who claims he fell on his personal knife throughout a wrestle
A picture of Lynn’s automobile because it appeared on 60 Minutes. Police already knew who it belonged to and had been listening to Lynn on secret recording gadgets
He claimed he didn’t inform his spouse out of concern of creating her an adjunct to the crime of destroying proof.
‘I lied to my spouse,’ Lynn stated.
‘It might be involving her in an issue that was nothing to do along with her… I lied to my spouse to guard her… If I instructed her, then she would then be concerned in it.’
Lynn instructed the jury he had been positioned into monetary issue by the Covid-19 lockdowns immediately after the alleged murders.
‘At the moment I used to be residing with my spouse and we nonetheless had a mortgage on our home. She had part-time work as a flight attendant, which isn’t well-paid, and it might have brought about extreme monetary hardship for us, for I nonetheless had two boys residing at residence at that stage; one in highschool,’ Lynn stated.
On the time of his arrest, Lynn had been working as a pilot for 36 years.
‘I picked asparagus as soon as throughout one interval of unemployment,’ Lynn claimed.
‘I have been retrenched a number of occasions and I’ve finished menial jobs. I labored as a river information as soon as in Tasmania, however I’ve no formal {qualifications} for something.’
Lynn maintained the campers died on account of a tragic accident, claiming Mr Hill shot Ms Clay useless earlier than falling on his personal knife moments later in a lethal wrestle.
The jury did not consider him.
