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A court heard a pilot admitted he was involved in the accidental deaths of Russell Hill and Carol Clay after a hunting dispute before making a “terrible choice” by hiding their bodies.
However, his defense attorney told the 15 jurors on Tuesday that he admitted to police that he was accidentally involved in their deaths.
“I’m innocent of murder, I didn’t behave well, I made some bad decisions, but of murder, as far as I understand it, I’m innocent,” said Dermot Dunn KC, quoting what Lin told detectives in his interview.
He said Lynn, who had brought two rifles with him, had gone hunting and when he returned to the campsite he noticed a drone flying overhead, piloted by Hill.
Sometime around dinner, Lynn walked over to Hill’s campsite and asked him about the drone.
Hill expressed his problems with Lynn about deer hunting near the campground and threatened to show police footage to Lynn, Dann alleged.
“Mr. Lin told him he was talking nonsense,” he said.
He told the court Lynn returned to her campsite and started playing loud music from her car stereo to annoy Hill.
Lynn claimed he heard some noises around his car and then saw Mr Hill drive away.
Believing he had his gun, he followed Hill and demanded it back.
“Mr Hill told him to back off,” Dunn told the jury.
“Mr. Lynn, you will hear and see, explains to the police that Mr. Hill lost his temper, that the loud music apparently disturbed Mr. Hill late at night.”
Dunn said Lynn went to get his gun from Hill when the 74-year-old fired at him in the air.
Lynn said he hid in the back of Hill’s car and again tried to get his gun back, and a struggle ensued.
The accused double murderer claimed that in a “chaotic scene” Hill fired the gun and a bullet went through the car’s windshield.
“That same shot, tragically, shot Mrs. Clay in the head,” Dann said.
The court heard that Hill ran up to Clay, Lynn took his gun and then Hill ran at Lynn with a knife, shouting “she’s dead”.
In a struggle over the knife, as Lynn tried to defend herself, the knife went into Hill’s chest, Dann claims.
He said Lin then made a “series of terrible choices” because he feared he would be blamed for the death.
“He tried to somehow make this disaster go away,” Dan said.
“He took a series of actions that, as he admitted in this interview transcript, only made his whole situation that much worse.”
He said Lynn packed up the camper and put the bodies in his trailer before setting the couple’s place on fire.
He then allegedly retrieved the knife used by Hill, took the pair’s drone and phones before driving off into the night with their bodies.
Lynn went to the Union Spur, near Dargo, and buried the couple before returning to Melbourne, Mr Dunn said.
He admitted in a police interview that he returned to the site when the COVID-19 lockdown ended in May 2020, and then again in November when he burned their remains.
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