Secret diary detailed abuse, fear of camper killer’s wife before her death

The mother of Greg Lynn’s first wife blames the missing camper killer for her daughter’s death, with secret diary entries detailing the abuse she allegedly suffered during their marriage.

Lisa Lynn’s grieving family say she wrote of death threats and verbal abuse in the months before she was found dead on the front lawn of the sprawling Mount Macedon home she had shared with husband Greg and their two children.

“As far as I am concerned, Greg is responsible for my daughter’s death by mental torture. I know she was living in absolute fear of Greg. Her actions were a combination of the fear and terror she lived under,” Lisa’s mother wrote in a document read out during Lynn’s pretrial hearing.

Lisa Lynn’s death in October 1999 was 25 years before the former airline pilot would be convicted of murdering a stranger in remote bushland in the High Country.

The details of Gregory and Lisa Lynn’s relationship, his interactions with police after her death – which a coroner deemed non-suspicious – and a string of court hearings over allegations he committed offences against his wife before she died, can be revealed after a gag order expired overnight.

It follows a fight lasting more than a year by media outlets to overturn the suppression order and reveal details that Justice Michael Croucher considered when sentencing Gregory Lynn to 32 years in prison for the March 2020 murder of Carol Clay, a 73-year-old camper.

He was found not guilty of killing Russell Hill, 74, at the same Wonnangatta Valley campsite before bundling Clay and Hill’s bodies into the back of his trailer and driving through the night to another remote area, where he hid the remains and later returned to burn them.

Court records show Gregory Lynn was, without conviction, released on a $300 good-behaviour bond in May 1999 after pleading guilty to escaping lawful custody during a police-escorted visit back to his Mount Macedon home.

During the same hearing, at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, he also pleaded guilty to breaching an intervention order twice in April 1999.

Charges struck out by the court after Lisa Lynn’s death included making threats to kill her in April 1999 and breaching an intervention order during the same month.

It came during what a court heard was a bitter break-up and custody dispute before Lisa Lynn was found dead on the front lawn of her home.

A coroner found she died, out in the elements, from a combination of prescription drug and alcohol toxicity, while her two young sons remained alone inside the sprawling country home on Zig Zag Road in October 1999. No one was charged over her death.

Following his conviction over the missing campers murder, the court heard Lisa Lynn was his most significant relationship. The pair met when she was 21 and working as an RAAF signals operator, and he was 19.

The pair moved to Western Australia and then Tasmania together, where she was heavily involved in the church, before they moved back to Victoria in the mid to late ’90s.

The court heard that when their relationship fell into difficulties, Gregory Lynn moved out of the family home and began a relationship with another woman.

Court orders were then put in place, limiting his contact with Lisa and their two young sons.

Lynn married his current wife, Melanie, in 2004.

In May 2024, during courtroom conversations when the jury was not present, Crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu raised calling the family of Lynn’s late wife to testify about his character and how they maintain Lisa Lynn died as a result of his persistent abusive ways.

Porceddu said he had an unsigned statement from the accused, from police records, that had him accepting his prior conduct as allegedly including breaking into his family home, stealing keys and taking a car, and on one occasion, pushing his then wife, Lisa Lynn.

Porceddu also read out a statement from Lisa Lynn’s family, who asked not to be identified.

In it, her father said his daughter feared repercussions from Lynn and lived in terror, so she did not pursue charges against him once they separated.

“When their relationship commenced, everything was good. For some time, Greg wandered in and out of employment with various jobs,” her father wrote to the Supreme Court.

“I was aware of the verbal abuse Greg was always [putting] on Lisa since the marriage began. Before their separation … Greg had been making very serious death threats against her and they continued right through until her death.

“Lisa kept a diary from the day Greg left the marriage … threats and verbal abuse … to the children made by Greg.

“I am also aware the police had to assist Lisa with an [intervention order] as a result of the above and the fact Greg broke into the house and stole the car, leaving Lisa with two young children and no transport … no money. Family court, child maintenance, very messy and bitter from Greg’s side. Greg asking for totally unreasonable demands.”

Porceddu also read a statement from Lisa Lynn’s mother, which said Lynn did not support his former partner after their separation and frequently subjected her to physical and psychological abuse.

“I made many trips to Mount Macedon … to help Lisa with the kids because she wasn’t getting any support from Greg,” she wrote.

“In addition to not gaining any support from Greg, he would subject her to physical and psychological abuse on a frequent basis. Losing his temper for no reason, blaming Lisa for anything that went wrong. He’d yell … things, push her around. I was not inclined to interfere, Lisa pleaded with me not to interfere. Lisa would say to me if I got involved ... ‘it would make it worse for me’.

“He has a warped mind, he has done things in the past like to animals and neighbours’ pets, and refused to feed the children. One time, in an uncontrolled rage at the Macedon Hotel, he verbally attacked a man in the bar … then redirected that rage to Lisa when we left the hotel.”

The statements were withheld from the jury as Lynn’s defence team labelled them prejudicial.

Earlier, Detective Senior Constable Brett Florence had been asked about Lynn’s past. He noted some things remained in the police file.

“Mr Lynn’s previous wife was located deceased and there was an inquest in relation to her death. The dossier for that investigation related to that ... he was … taken back to the property and while he was in custody escaped from their custody and later arrested,” Florence told a pre-trial hearing.

Florence said police records showed that after Lynn escaped custody, he allegedly hid in the nearby bush and attempted to locate something “hidden” in the Macedon area.

He was rearrested a short time later, the officer said.

“[Police database] LEAP [also] indicated a breach of an intervention order.”

In January 2023, magistrate Brett Sonnet ordered a suppression of the information about the killer’s prior interactions with police, later bolstering the order in November 2024, after accusing one of the country’s largest media organisations of “outrageous, unfair reporting”.

Lawyers for media outlets, including the Herald Sun, ABC and this masthead, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to argue that a suppression order preventing publication should be lifted after Lynn’s conviction.

Instead, Sonnet largely used the hearing to suggest it was the “unified view” of all magistrates and the court that a recent, unrelated Herald Sun story highlighting the topic of deportation at a recent training conference was in error and stooped to the “lowest possible standard imaginable”.

Sonnet said the press had already engaged in extensive reporting of Lynn’s trial and on “almost every matter you’ve been able to do so”, before strengthening the suppression order.

Gregory Lynn is awaiting a decision on his appeal against his conviction and sentence over Carol Clay’s murder.

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