Mark Lundy retrial: 'Yorkshire Ripper' scientist gives evidence

Mark Lundy in the dock. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A British forensic scientist who has criticised aspects of the way the Lundy double-murder case was investigated will continue to be cross examined today.

Mark Lundy, 56, has denied killing his wife Christine, 38, and daughter Amber, 7, in their Palmerston North home in the early hours of August 30, 2000.

The Crown has not yet finished calling prosecution witnesses, but Lundy's defence team was allowed to call its first witness early to accommodate Mrs Leak's availability.

Forensic expert Gillian Leak has worked on numerous murder scenes, including the Yorkshire Ripper case where serial killer Peter Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill another seven during the 1970s and early 1980s.

In the High Court at Wellington yesterday, Mrs Leak told the jury of five women and seven men she believed there could have been an innocent explanation for paint fragments, the same colour as Lundy's tools, being found in his wife's hair.

Mrs Lundy could have gone to their shed and perhaps ended up with flakes on her hands that she could have run through her hair, she said.

Under cross examination by prosecution lawyer Philip Morgan, she said she came to that opinion after last week hearing evidence from the family cleaner who talked about the home being redecorated.

Earlier yesterday, Mrs Leak told the court that officers coming and going from the Lundy household during their crime scene examination could have contaminated or lost evidence.

Police should also have been wearing full protective gear as soon as entering the property, rather than changing into the gear while on the property but before entering the house, she said.

The trial in front of Justice Simon France continues.