The grave of Christine and Amber Lundy . Photo / Mark Mitchell
The grave of Christine and Amber Lundy . Photo / Mark Mitchell
Mark Lundy has been found guilty of the murder of his wife and daughter, for the second time. The jury deliberated for 16 hours over more than 2 days, but the search for justice for Christine and Amber Lundy has taken more than 15 years.
August 29, 2000: Christine Lundy, 38, and daughter Amber, 7, are murdered in their Palmerston North home.
February 23, 2001: Mark Edward Lundy is charged with two counts of murder.
March 20, 2002: Lundy denies the double slaying but is found guilty after a six-week trial.
April 12, 2002: Lundy is sentenced to life imprisonment and told to serve 17 years in prison before he can apply for parole. Justice Anthony Ellis said his crimes violated in the "most horrendous way, the security of the family and the obligation that in this case, a father has to his partner and their child - and a child of tender years."
August 12, 2002: Court of Appeal rejects Lundy's bid to have his convictions quashed and instead lifts his minimum non-parole period to 20 years. In lengthening the sentence, the three justices said the evidence suggested he planned the killing of his wife carefully and must have appreciated that Amber would witness the murder. "She must have died with the awful injuries to her mother as her last living memory ... we have to say that Mr Lundy's murder of his daughter in these circumstances, coming on top of the murder of his wife, requires denunciation and demonstration of society's abhorrence at a very high level".
2003: Businessman Geoff Levick meets a small group of supporters who believe Lundy is innocent.
2004 - 2007: Levick spends thousands of hours researching the case.
2009: North & South magazine publishes 18-page spread questioning the evidence which convicted Lundy.
Mark Lundy with Christine and Amber Lundy. Mark Lundy was today found guilty of killing them for a second time. Photo / Supplied
2010: Levick approaches John McLinden, QC, in London to take appeal to Privy Council.
2011: McLinden introduces Levick to fellow New Zealander Dave Hislop, QC, in London and Malcolm Birdling, studying miscarriages of justice at Oxford, who take on the case.
2012: Appeal filed to the Law Lords and hearing granted.
June 2013: Three-day appeal heard by Privy Council in London, including New Zealand Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias. The appeal hinged on seven grounds, the most crucial being a challenge to the reliability of the science used to identify DNA matter found on Lundy's shirt as brain tissue, the time of death and when the Lundy family computer was switched off.
October 2013: Privy Council overturns convictions and orders a retrial. The Law Lords found the new evidence put forward by the defence team was credible and "presents a direct and plausible challenge to a central element of the prosecution case". Lundy released on bail to live with his sister.
February 2015: Retrial of Lundy begins at the High Court at Wellington in front of Justice Simon France and a 12-person jury.
April 1 2015: Jury finds Mark Lundy guilty.
Key quotes from the trial
PHILIP MORGAN QC (CROWN PROSECUTOR) "Who kills a women lying flat on her back in her bed? And who kills a little girl? She was 7 for heaven's sake. Was she really going to identify a random burglar?"
"This has got all the hallmarks of an inside job. No part of this demonstrates a random burglary."
"The pattern of blows - bang, bang, bang - across the face. He was trying to obliterate her face wasn't he? What person, other than someone who definitely wanted her dead would've done such a thing?"
"This man must have been under terrible pressure with impending bankruptcy ... and a very unhappy wife. And so the only way he could get himself out of this dreadful business was if his wife was dead. He didn't need to worry about getting her on board with this foolish expedition into the wine business."
"Put it all together and Mark Lundy has Christine Lundy's brain on his shirt."
"Put aside all the other evidence for a moment. It's brain tissue and Christine Lundy. Not an animal. There is no other rational explanation other than he is the killer."
DAVID HISLOP QC (LUNDY'S LAWYER) "It very much looks like the intruder's purpose was the attack. The stealing of jewellery was probably opportunistic. Why would the intruder attack her? Who knows? Mistaken identity? Deranged? Psychotic?"
"To suggest a man who had just brutally bashed the brains out of Christine Lundy would not gratuitously club Amber to death is nonsense. The difficulty we have here is the prosecution are trying to suggest there's some rationality in these people who commit murders like that."
"What would be achieved by killing Christine Lundy? She was the fulcrum of the business, the only one that was bringing income into the house."
"What builder's tool do the prosecution say he used to murder his wife? A hammer? A screwdriver? A chisel? A plane? We waited and waited and there was no answer. The silence was deafening. The simplest of questions has never been answered by the prosecution."
"This is not a forensic jousting match, this is about this man's [Lundy's] life."
"Of course there were two horrible horrible deaths, of course there was brain everywhere. The fact brain was found on his shirt is not the end of the story."
"It's an exciting time for forensic science ... but [Mark Lundy] is not a laboratory rat - something to try something on."
MARK LUNDY "Do you think I killed them? Bloody terrible. I'm lost for words - that has got to be the most heinous thought that I can think." (said in police interview)
WITNESS X (INMATE) "[Lundy] said he wouldn't be there if his daughter hadn't come out and seen what he had done to his wife."
CRAIG LUNDY (DEFENDANT'S BROTHER) "He mentioned that once they found out they couldn't have children, Christine went off sex and it was up to three months without having sex."
"He told us that he had got a bottle of rum and drunk about half the bottle. He was celebrating; I assumed it was a work-related thing ... later that night, he had called a prostitute, and had used one on four occasions prior to that."
MARIA NORELLE (DEFENDANT'S SISTER-IN-LAW) "[Christine] was concerned about the cost of partying and the influence it would have on Amber. She had said she wanted Mark to give up drinking for three months to see if he could."
NEELTJE BOERE (DEFENDANT'S CLIENT) "If he has a problem he'll sort it out immediately ... I've never seen him lose his temper. He's very gentle and very nice."
CAROLINE DURHAM (AMBER'S GODMOTHER) "I'd say it was quite grim on the financial front. My understanding was they were paying a lot in interest ... it wasn't a happy picture. It was Mark's project ... I don't think [Christine] was very happy."
GLENN WEGGERY (CHRISTINE'S BROTHER) "I hung up the phone and went down the hallway. [Amber's] head was cracked open at the back. Blood was everywhere. Brains ... I saw Christine on the bed ... I didn't go into the bedroom."
KAREN KEENAN (CHRISTINE'S FRIEND) "Amber was lying in the doorway and she was face down and the back of her head was matted and bloody. There was a huge pool of blood and there was blood all round the walls and roof."
