The Case of Mark Lundy, Convicted of Murdering His Wife and Daughter In
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en years. Ten bloody years. + Crime Jeez. Geoff Levick leans back and thinks how long he’s been Tworking on Mark Lundy’s case and smiles a bit. It was never meant to take this long – hell, it was never meant to take half this long – to appeal Lundy’s conviction for murdering his wife Christine and seven-year-old daughter Amber. A High Court jury and then the Appeal Court both said Lundy axed his family to death with a tomahawk, an attack so furied and fed by hatred that the scene was a bloodbath. But that notion never stacked up for Levick and a very small group who con- tinued to support Lundy. So they set to work, got all the documents, picked away at the case’s improbabilities, contradictions and fallacies, all the while becoming more convinced that this was one of the country’s greatest miscarriages of justice. There was help along the way, from lawyers working for free and experts here and overseas who were aghast at the science on which Lundy had been convicted. As far back as 2007, Levick had documented the case’s pitfalls in a compelling draft and felt they were almost ready to file an appeal. But nothing happens as expected in cases such as these, nothing moves as quickly as wanted. So here we are now, 10 years after Lundy’s conviction and the Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold it and, at last, a new appeal has been filed. In the coming weeks, all Levick’s work will be considered by the judges of the Privy Police allege Lundy made a 300km round trip between his Petone motel (top) and his Council, 20,000km from his Auckland home Palmerston North home (above), much of it during rush hour, as well as committing and a world away from the blood-stained the murders and disposing of the evidence – all in less than three hours. Despite bedroom in Karamea Cres, Palmerston North, numerous attempts, nobody has been able to complete the drive in this time. where Christine and Amber were discovered on the morning of August 30, 2000. he day before, on Tuesday, August The police scenario was that Lundy had and pathologists pinpointed the time of death The case of Mark Lundy, 29, 2000, Mark Lundy, then 41 got into financial trouble with a land pur- at between 7pm and 7.15pm. convicted of murdering his and the owner of a business sup- chase and murdered Christine to claim her Having somehow convinced Christine to Tplying kitchen sinks and benches, life insurance. Amber witnessed the attack do this – despite having already booked into wife and daughter in 2000, is drove from his house to Wellington on so also had to be killed, they hypothesised. his motel; despite Christine and Amber’s Lundy’s business. He checked into a Petone motel, It took six months for police to arrest favourite television programme, Shortland set to be reviewed by the Privy having clients to see the next day before Lundy, and in that time they’d settled on an Street, being on at 7pm; despite Amber not Council. Mike White reveals the returning home. explanation of how he’d committed the crime. usually being in bed at this time; despite remarkable Kiwi team behind But police claimed that shortly after 5.30pm At 5.30pm on that Tuesday, Christine and Christine having to do her brother’s GST Lundy made a wild drive 150km back home Amber had phoned Lundy in Petone saying return that evening; despite it being much Last his appeal and the mounting to murder Christine and Amber, then sped that Amber’s Pippins (Guides) group had more logical to make the trip home later if evidence that suggests Lundy back to Petone by 8.29pm, where later that been cancelled and they were going to have a romantic tryst was desired; despite hav- night, he hired a prostitute for sex. The McDonald’s for dinner. Supposedly, Lundy ing to be back in Wellington the next day was wrongly convicted. next day Lundy carried on with his normal told Christine he was coming home for sex – police argued Lundy set off in rush-hour Chance? business calls until alerted that police were and convinced her to be in bed by 7pm. This traffic to race home. swarming over his house, whereupon he bizarre interpretation was necessary because Cellphone records confirm Lundy had a MIKE WHITE IS A NORTH & SOUTH SENIOR WRITER. raced home and feigned grief. Christine’s body was found naked in bed window of just under three hours to drive 56 | NORTH & SOUTH | JANUARY 2013 NORTH & SOUTH | JANUARY 2013 | 57 the blood off him – in such a secret place they sentenced to life imprisonment including 17 have never been found; and run back 500m years without parole. The Court of Appeal to his car. Then he had to drive at speeds increased this to 20 years. averaging 120km/h to get back to Petone. Public opinion was sated. Virtually nobody Police tried to recreate the journey and believed Lundy was innocent – his over-the- never managed the drive in under three hours top theatrics at Christine and Amber’s funeral – let alone everything else he had to do. And and his hiring of a hooker were enough to their attempts were never in rush hour. Other convict him in most people’s minds. Stories attempts to achieve the 300km drive in the of his heavy drinking and big-mouth bragging time required have never got remotely close. only added to popular distaste. The Crown, however, insisted it must have Without the choirboy image of David Bain been possible, despite no other travellers or and a high-profile champion like Joe Karam, police having seen Lundy’s car travelling at Lundy’s case quickly disappeared from head- the incredible speeds that were necessary. lines, clutched onto by only a few individu- Somehow the jury also believed it was als convinced the evidence didn’t exist, had possible. And at the heart of that “somehow” been twisted or was just plain wrong. were two tiny specks of tissue found on a polo-shirt in Lundy’s car. The murder was hen Geoff Levick first learnt so violent that blood sprayed over the of the journey Lundy had to bedroom walls and ceiling, creating a shadow make within three hours, he David Hislop, an expat New Zealander where the killer stood. Despite Lundy’s couldn’t believe police would and Queen’s Counsel in the UK, has W been another key figure in bringing glasses, wedding ring, shoes and car being be able to convince a jury Lundy was the Lundy’s case to the Privy Council. tested for blood and nothing having been murderer. “I remember saying to my wife, initially by Auckland barristers Barry Hart found, police seized on the two faint stains ‘They’re going to have to stitch this guy up and Richard Earwaker. on the shirt’s left sleeve and chest pocket. because you just can’t do the trip in that time Levick had drafted a comprehensive appeal Testing suggested there was a high proba- – it’s just absolutely impossible.’” to the Privy Council by 2007 but felt their bility they contained Christine Lundy’s DNA. Levick’s certainty came from years of lawyers were making little progress and by Levick knew it was a long shot but figured After initially being told by world experts having made a virtually identical journey to late 2008 was reaching the end of his tether. McLinden’s awareness of the case might be there was no way of identifying exactly what that Lundy was said to have made to kill his In February 2009, North & South published enough to make him read an email. McLin- type of tissue the stains were, police were wife and daughter. Levick is now an Auckland an 18-page article (by this writer) on the case, den did just that, and asked for more pointed to a pathologist in Dallas, Texas, horse breeder, but between 1975 and 1996 he questioning the evidence that led to Lundy’s details. who claimed he was capable of conducting owned a company importing chemicals and conviction. It raised strong doubts about the In early 2011, McLinden advised Levick such testing. Rodney Miller tested the shirt plastic raw materials. Visiting clients, he time of death being 7pm as the pathologists that, due to his wife’s illness, he couldn’t take stains using a technique called immuno- would drive between Unilever’s factory in and police insisted, and called into question on Lundy’s case. “But rather than just wash histochemistry and confidently asserted Petone near the motel Lundy stayed at, and whether the specks found on Lundy’s shirt his hands and say, ‘I can’t help you anymore,’ they were brain tissue. James Hardie’s premises in Palmer ston North, were actually brain tissue. he said, ‘I’ll find someone else.’ That was a Immunohistochemistry (IHC) is a test which was 400m from the Lundys’ house. Following this, lawyers Christopher very strong gesture,” recalls Levick. used in cancer diagnosis and research labo- He made the trip dozens of times, nearly Stevenson and Keith Becker offered their McLinden approached David Hislop, an- ratories to help establish what cells are pre- always around lunchtime when traffic was services pro-bono to take the case to appeal. other expat New Zealander and QC working sent. However, it had never been done on much lighter than the rush hour Lundy was Given how slow progress had been until then, in the UK, who he’d known for 15 years.