Justice Michael Croucher said Clay’s murder was violent, brutal and horrific.
In October, Lynn’s defence team said prosecutors “chickened out” when grilling him at the trial and played outside the rules so often that his conviction should be quashed.
A smiling Greg Lynn at court on Thursday.Credit: eddie Jim
Defence barrister Dermot Dann, KC, argued five grounds of appeal, saying the prospect of his client dying in jail was possible.
Dann said prosecutors broke the rules that govern fair conduct of criminal trials “so thick and fast” that he was unable to keep up. In total, the trial judge noted 17 breaches.
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These breaches, Dann said, might have led the Supreme Court jury down an “impermissible pathway” in arriving at their verdict.
“The prosecutor went mad,” Dann said.
Jurors had deliberated for seven days before they rejected Lynn’s claims that Clay had been accidentally shot in the head during a struggle over a firearm.
Director of Public Prosecutions Brendan Kissane, KC, told the Court of Appeal that the defence had failed to establish a substantial miscarriage of justice had occurred.
Any departures from the rules of fairness, Kissane argued, were adequately remedied by the trial judge, so much so that his directions to the jury were “favourable to the accused in the extreme”.
Also in court on Thursday were family members of Clay and Hill, senior police including Inspector Tony Combridge, who formally oversaw the homicide squad investigation, and lead investigator Sergeant Brett Florence.
Lynn smiled, shook hands with and hugged his legal team after the judgment was handed down.
He then smiled at his son, Geordie Lynn, who attended the hearing.
Nearby, one of Clay’s daughters sobbed and was comforted by her husband.
Lynn was remanded in custody and ordered to reappear in court in January.
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