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Home / New Zealand

Mark Lundy retrial: Shirt 'no place for wife's brain'

Jared Savage
By Jared Savage
Investigative Journalist·NZ Herald·
25 Mar, 2015 04:00 PM5 mins to read

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Mark Lundy. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Mark Lundy. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Crown QC tells jury repeatedly that stains were from victim’s central nervous system.

No man should have his wife's brain on his shirt. A point made over and over again in the closing address of Queen's Counsel Philip Morgan.

Mark Lundy drove from Wellington to Palmerston North in the wee hours of the morning on August 30, 2000 and killed his wife and daughter, according to the prosecutor who methodically led the jury through the Crown case.

And he was to the point.

"The Crown case is Mark Lundy has Christine Lundy's brain on his shirt. Everyone danced around the edges ... the scientists say, 'Oh, we can only say it's central nervous system tissue' ... then there's this business about contamination, or on the other hand, whether it's necrotic or degraded," said Mr Morgan.

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"But put it all together and Mark Lundy has Christine Lundy's brain on his shirt. And no husband should have his wife's brain on his shirt. Not when she's been murdered by having her skull cracked open and her brain's been splattered everywhere.

"Especially a man who says, 'Nothing to do with me, I'm in Wellington'."

All the scientists who gave evidence at the trial agreed, said Mr Morgan, that the two minute stains on Lundy's shirt were tissue from the central nervous system.

He rattled off their names: Miller, Gown, Brat, Smith, Ironside and du Plessis.

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"We're not talking about any old piece of central nervous system tissue, we're talking about fresh tissue," said Mr Morgan, which was embedded in the fabric of the shirt Lundy was wearing on the night his wife's brain was opened.

DNA testing showed the tissue belonged to Christine Lundy, said Mr Morgan. It was one billion billion times more likely to belong to her than any other person in New Zealand.

Not just a little bit, or a trace, but a "high-quality, high-quantity" sample, which suggested the DNA came from blood or tissue from Christine Lundy.

"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."

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The QC poured scorn on the potential for contamination raised by defence counsel during the trial, in which the scientists agreed it was a "possibility".

"Scientists will never rule out possibilities. It's all very well dealing in possibilities, but it didn't happen.

"Not one, but two, pieces of tissue managed to inveigle their way from 30 Karamea St, to the police station, into the car, inside the suit bag and on to the shirt - which was inside out.

"It's a nonsense, a theory that has been floated out.

"What was found on Mark Lundy's shirt was his wife's brain. And it got there, not by any accidental contamination by police, but because he was in the room when brain was flying around, or cleaning himself up."

If the shirt told the story of what Mark Lundy did, Mr Morgan said the accused's Ford Fairmont showed where he went.

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The fuel tank was empty when it shouldn't have been, the QC said.

On August 21, 2000 - nine days before Christine and Amber were found dead - the Ford had 80,589km on the clock.

When the car was stopped by police on August 30, there was 81,859km - a difference of 1270km.

Mr Morgan told the jury the police had reconstructed Lundy's movements in those nine days - based on his interview, business records and cellphone records - and 847km and "little bits" were accounted for.

That left 423km unaccounted for - more than enough room for the secret 300km round trip between Wellington and Palmerston North the Crown alleges Lundy drove to commit the murders.

Mr Morgan then turned his attention to fuel consumption for the Ford Fairmont. On mapping the routes Lundy drove in the days before the murders, one tank of gas allowed him to travel at least 461km.

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He then filled up at the BP petrol station in Naenae. On his version of events, Lundy travelled just 202km on the second tank of gas as the car was empty when he arrived back in Palmerston North.

That was a fuel economy of 28.7 litres of petrol per 100km, said Mr Morgan - nearly three times the 10.8-litre economy rate for highway driving used by government departments.

"There is a disparity in the distance travelled. There is a very big discrepancy in the fuel used.

"This is a man with his wife's brain on his shirt who says, 'Nothing to do with me, I was in Wellington'."

By his estimation, Mr Morgan is halfway through his closing address and will continue this morning.

Closing points by Crown prosecutor, Philip Morgan, QC

• Scientists agree the stains on Mark Lundy's shirt were central nervous system tissue.

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• DNA from one of the stains is one billion billion times more likely to be from Christine Lundy than anyone else in New Zealand.

• Contamination theories were "nonsense".

• Police estimate there are 423km of unaccounted-for travel on the odometer of Mark Lundy's car - enough for a secret 300km Wellington-Palmerston North round trip

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