Mark Lundy was found guilty of the murder of his wife and daughter for the second time in 2015. The jury - which deliberated for 16 hours over more than two days - returned the unanimous verdicts at a packed High Court at Wellington. Video / Mark Mitchell
Mark Lundy has been released from prison after serving more than 23 years for murder.
Lundy maintains his innocence and plans to continue fighting to clear his name.
His release includes strict conditions and a suppression order on his living arrangements.
Convicted double killer Mark Lundy is enjoying his first full day of freedom today after spending the past 23 years in prison for the murder of his wife and daughter.
Lundy, now aged 66, walked out of Tongariro Prison early yesterday morning.
Suppression orders prevent the publication of thelocation where he has been released.
The Herald spotted a bespectacled Lundy, wearing an oversized hoodie, trackpants and jandals, going for a drive with one of his supporters today.
He took his fight against the conviction all the way to the Privy Council, which quashed the guilty verdict in 2013, only for him to be found guilty again in 2015 on retrial and sent back to prison.
His release conditions include a ban on using social media, including dating sites, as well as pornography.
There is also a suppression order that means it cannot be revealed just where he will live and who he will live with.
Mark Lundy being supported after the funeral of his wife Christine and daughter Amber in 2000. Photo / Mark Mitchell
On August 29, 2000, Lundy’s wife Christine, 38, and daughter Amber were butchered with an axe or tomahawk inside their home in Karamea Crescent, Palmerston North.
Lundy was on a Wellington business trip at the time and has always maintained his innocence.
At his first trial, the Crown argued that he drove from Wellington back to Palmerston North to commit the murder and then travelled back to the capital, where his alibi maintained he was with a sex worker at the time.
An appeal to the Privy Council in 2013 based on the time of the victims’ deaths, the presence of organic tissue on Lundy’s shirt and the time Christine’s computer was turned off resulted in his convictions being overturned.
Mark Lundy during his murder trial at the Palmerston North High Court in 2002. Photo / Mark Mitchell
In his 2015 retrial, the window of the time of death was expanded to 14 hours, with the Crown instead alleging Lundy had returned home in the early hours of the morning to kill his family.
“He’s got principles and he didn’t do this, so of course he’s going to stick to his guns.”
The Lundy family. Photo / NZME
Lundy has an application in with the Criminal Cases Review Commission and Jones said it would be much easier for him to meet with them and his lawyers now that he is being released.
At his hearing, one of Lundy’s lawyers, Ella Burton, addressed the “elephant in the room”: his professed innocence.
Burton said that while it might be “neater and more palatable” if Lundy had simply professed his guilt, it wasn’t a factor the board was required to consider.
“He should not be detained because of a lack of admission,” she said.
“Life does not mean life in New Zealand in terms of never being released.”
