Lundy appeal ends but tests to continue
Convicted murderer Mark Lundy’s appeal hearing has ended, but a result is not expected before next year.
After a day of discussion about whether the stains on his shirt could have been from a meat pie, rather than the brain of his murdered wife, it was revealed there will be more scientific testing and possibly more legal argument.
The defence has an expert doing tests it believes will show the science used to find that the stains contain human brain tissue was unreliable. The Crown will then be able to get its own expert to respond to the defence expert.
The Court of Appeal was told this could take until the end of the year, and there might be more legal argument as well.
One issue dominated yesterday, as it did on the other two days of the hearing – what was in those stains on Lundy’s shirt?
The Court of Appeal was hearing Lundy’s appeal against his convictions for murdering his wife Christine and their 7-year-old daughter Amber.
The pair were found brutally murdered in their Palmerston North home in August 2000.
Lundy was first convicted after a jury trial in 2002, where the Crown said he committed the murders about 7pm on August 30, 2000. But he won a retrial after the Privy Council overturned the verdicts in 2013.
He was again convicted after a retrial in early 2015, where the Crown said the murders happened between 1am and 5.30am.
The appeal has focused mostly on two stains found on a shirt Lundy said he wore the night before the murders. Both sides agree there is central nervous system tissue in the stains.
The Crown claims it is Christine’s brain tissue, relying on the fact her DNA is in one of the stains and the test invented before the retrial found it was more probably human tissue than animal.
The defence thinks the tissue is animal, or got there through contamination.
Justice Raynor Asher took some interest in a defence theory from the trial, that the tissue was animal and came from a pie.
A chili beef and cheese pie wrapper was found in Lundy’s car, and he said he ate the pie the day before the murders.
‘‘The pie contained beef,’’ Asher said.
‘‘Ground beef includes central nervous system tissue, presumably. He picks up a fork and two drops spill on his shirt.’’
Animal and Christine’s DNA were both found in one of the two stains on the shirt.
Crown lawyer Philip Morgan, QC, said the pie theory was unlikely to be true because experts said the tissue had to be fresh.
‘‘How unlucky can you be to be eating a chili beef and cheese pie and get a piece of beef on your shirt, which has miraculously transformed itself into being fresh and capable of being smeared, and Christine Lundy’s DNA has got on ground the same spot in a large quantity?’’
Asher said he was surprised at the emphasis on the tissue having to be fresh and smearable.
‘‘I seem to successfully smear food on occasion into my shirt.’’
Justice Mark Cooper was more concerned about a submission from Morgan that a piece of evidence that suggested the tissue was more likely human than animal was not overly important.
‘‘Can this court be sure that the jury would nevertheless have convicted [Lundy]?’’
Jonathan Eaton, QC, also had the same concern.
Pre-trial decisions described the evidence as ‘‘pivotal’’ and ‘‘important’’.
‘‘When you go through other facets of the case, you can make an argument both ways but there were no knockout blows either way,’’ Eaton said.
‘‘But if the jury is persuaded it’s Christine Lundy’s central nervous system tissue, then he is guilty.’’
Morgan said the evidence was part of the ‘‘building blocks’’ of the case, and other evidence showed Lundy was the murderer.
He also addressed allegations the Crown unfairly changed its case for the retrial.
While the time of death had changed, the key submission about Christine’s brain had not, Morgan said.
The change in time of death was required, as evidence at the first trial about that was shown to be unreliable at the Privy Council..
The defence team was told in June 2014 the Crown would not stipulate an exact time of death, and they were also provided with three possible times of death.
As the trial approached, the early morning death theory emerged as the one to concentrate on, Morgan said.