Lundy back on trial after 12 years

Lundy will go back on trial almost 13 years after he was originally convicted. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A fresh bid to solve one of the country's most enduring murder mysteries will be launched tomorrow.

Mark Lundy will go on trial over the brutal axe killings of his wife and daughter - almost 13 years after he was originally convicted.

The trial is set down for six weeks at the High Court at Wellington. It is expected complex scientific evidence will play a key part after the trial was delayed from June last year to allow it to be gathered.

Lundy was convicted of murdering wife Christine and their 7-year-old daughter Amber in their Palmerston North home in August 2000.

He later lost an appeal to the Court of Appeal, and had his non-parole period increased to 20 years - then the longest non-parole period for a life sentence handed down in New Zealand.

But the 58-year-old, who has always maintained his innocence, successfully appealed to the Privy Council, which in 2013 quashed his conviction and ordered a retrial.

He is currently on bail.

During the appeal it was argued by Lundy's lawyer that he'd suffered a substantial miscarriage of justice.

The appeal hinged on a number of points including the failure of police to disclose a document to defence lawyers; the validity of science used to identify matter on Lundy's shirt as brain tissue; and the examination of stomach contents to determine the time the pair died.

Lundy supporters have pointed to several alternative suspects. One theory is that Christine and Amber were the victims of a methamphetamine-fuelled attack.