24 Mar 2015

Lundy sobbed at seeing photos

7:25 pm on 24 March 2015

Mark Lundy screamed and sobbed when he saw photos of the bludgeoned bodies of his wife and daughter, and told an officer he hated him for showing them to him.

Mark Lundy touching wood at the start of Monday week four.

Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson

Mr Lundy, 56, is accused of murdering his 38-year-old wife, Christine Lundy, and seven-year-old daughter, Amber, whose bodies were found in their Palmerston North home on 30 August 2000; the Crown claims Mr Lundy killed his wife for her insurance money and Amber because she saw what he was doing to her mother.

He is on trial in the High Court at Wellington, where the jury is today being shown an interview with Detective Inspector Stephen Kelly, who in 2000 was a detective sergeant in Palmerston North.

Mr Lundy was formally cautioned at the start of the interview and, as it progressed, Mr Kelly told him he believed he was responsible for the killings.

He then said he had to show him photos of the crime scene, that "the day has come, we've got to do it" and to "steel yourself".

Mr Lundy then screamed and sobbed as Mr Kelly told him his wife had "severe injuries to her arms and her head" and said they were trying to work out what had caused them, prompting Mr Lundy to say "an axe".

Mr Kelly asks him why he would say that, to which he replied he had heard inquiry head Ross Grantham saying that on TV.

"God I hate you now, I really do. God, you're going to show me her (Amber) now too, aren't you," Mr Lundy said.

"F***. That really pisses me off."

Mr Kelly then showed him a photo of his dead daughter, prompting more sobbing.

Earlier in the interview, Mr Kelly had put it to Mr Lundy that witnesses had told police the couple were not as close as they had been and that, if he was to summarise the Lundys' relationship he would say it was not loving.

Mr Lundy responded: "You think that I killed them."

Mr Kelly: "At the moment, yes I do. I believe that at the moment. How do you feel about that?"

Mr Lundy: "Bloody terrible to be honest. I'm lost for words. That's got to be the most heinous thought that I could come up with."

Mr Lundy said he had told a number of people he really liked Mr Kelly and that he was a top bloke - "until now".

During the interview Mr Kelly also discussed such things as what Mr Lundy was wearing, when his clothes were last washed, who did his packing when he went away and Mr Lundy's claim petrol had been siphoned from his car up to five times.

He then cut to the chase.

"What is the situation, did you or did you not return to Palmerston North," Mr Kelly asked.

Mr Lundy replied: "Definitely not. (I had) no reason to return to Palmerston North. If I returned to Palmerston North I wouldn't have been in a motel in Wellington.

"What was I doing, supposed to be doing (in Palmerston North)?"

He then said his wife had phoned him in Petone about 5.30pm and that he phoned someone from Petone at 8.30pm, and suggested those calls could be checked.

"I'd be doing pretty good to be in Palmerston North at 7.15pm and Petone at 8.30," he said.

"I've only ever done that once, and it scared me."

Mr Kelly told Mr Lundy his petrol light was flashing when he was pulled over as he drove back into Palmerston North.

Police had recreated his trip since he had filled up with petrol the day before and that there was bout 20 litres of petrol, or 300km, unaccounted for - enough for a round trip to Palmerston North, he said.

"I see your problem. Oh shit. Bloody hell. I've got no idea but I did not come back to Palmerston North," Mr Lundy replied.

"I can't explain it."

Mr Kelly said in his 16 years in the police he had never heard of one person having petrol siphoned from their car as often as Mr Lundy claimed he had, and that raised suspicions in his mind.

"So you don't believe me," Mr Lundy said.

Police ruled out initial suspect, court told

Detective Senior Sergeant Warren Olsson, who worked on the re-investigation into the case, today said police had ruled out a man initially considered a suspect in the case.

Defence lawyer Ross Burns last week questioned Detective Jennifer Curran about the man, who has name suppression, saying he had worked with Mrs Lundy in the late 1980s and early 1990s and that police had been told the man had stalked a female employee at their workplace. An informant said the man "knew Christine Lundy and disliked her".

Ms Curran confirmed the man was considered a suspect and agreed he had said he was at home asleep - in the same suburb as the Lundys - on 29 August. However, his parents, who he lived with, said they could not be sure he was there all night.

Mr Olsson said the woman who was supposedly stalked had been overseas in 2000 and could not be interviewed. However, she was interviewed in 2013 as part of the new investigation and said there was not truth to the stalking allegations.

As well, the man was on medication with "known sedative qualities".

"There was no evidence whatsoever to indicate [the man] had any involvement in the murders of Christine and Amber," Mr Olsson said today.

The prosecution today concluded its case. A number of defence witnesses have already given evidence but more will do so this week.

The case is expected to conclude by Easter.

*Clarification - For the avoidance of doubt, please note that Radio New Zealand reporter Sharon Lundy is no relation to Mark Lundy.