Former airline pilot Greg Lynn lost his bid to be released on bail ahead of his retrial over the alleged murder of an elderly camper.
The 60-year-old is set to face trial in May accused of murdering Carol Clay, 73, who vanished while camping in March 2020 with Russell Hill, 74.
He has consistently maintained he is innocent and argued Ms Clay’s death was accidental.
Mr Lynn returned before the Victorian Supreme Court on Tuesday morning as Chief Justice Richard Niall said he did not find the accused man had shown he had exceptional reasons justifying his release.
“Accordingly, the application for bail will be refused,” he said.
The decision follows a hearing last week in which Mr Lynn alleged he had been attacked twice in prison and believed he was surrounded by police informers who would “lie about their own mother”.
The former Jetstar training pilot, who has remained in custody since his arrest in September 2021, told the court he was now living in solitary confinement-like conditions for his safety.
Mr Lynn said he was first attacked in 2024, when an inmate threw a milk jug full of faeces and other “disgusting material” over him, and was attacked a second time in July.
In the incident, Mr Lynn said a man had told him “you’re going to be stabbed”, poking him and spitting on him before he walked away.
Arguing in support of bail, Mr Lynn’s barrister Dermot Dann KC said his eldest son Geordie Lynn had offered up his $70,000 life-savings as a bail guarantee.
Following a 2024 trial, Mr Lynn was found guilty of Ms Clay’s murder and acquitted of Mr Hill’s, but his conviction was overturned by a panel of three judges in the Court of Appeal late last year.
The appeal judges found a substantial miscarriage of justice had occurred in his trial due to unfair actions taken by the prosecution, and ordered he be retried over Clay’s death.
A new trial has been scheduled to begin in May next year before Justice Michael O’Connell.