Arson is the “easiest thing in the world and very hard to trace”, a woman accused of killing her father in a house fire told an undercover police officer.
In 2020, the young officer who called herself “Millie” had been slowly befriending alleged murderer Lynne Maree Martin, 63, and her husband Graeme, eventually sharing with them a fake scenario designed to raise the subject of arson.
“Millie” recorded conversations with the couple and on Friday - the 10th day of Martin’s trial in the High Court at Gisborne - a jury used specialist headsets to listen to some of those covert recordings.
The Crown alleges Martin drove from Tauranga on January 24, 2013, intent on burning down her 88-year-old father Ronald Russell Allison’s Whatatutu farmhouse, with him inside.
Expert fire evidence already heard by the jury was that the fire started with a pot of hot oil or fat left to ignite on a hot stove element.
Having secured the couple’s trust over a number of months, on July 20, 2020, Millie shared her false predicament with them - that she had been the driver in a hit-and-run incident in Australia but had returned to New Zealand before it was discovered. The man she hit had allegedly sexually assaulted her at a party.
She was now being blackmailed by her ex-husband, who was angry she’d walked out on him and was trying to get her half share of their Dunedin house. Millie stood to lose about $100,000.
The scenario was that he had discovered a diary Millie had accidentally left behind in which she had detailed her crime. He was threatening to take it to police.
The Martins discussed with her what could be done about the situation.
Martin said it would be good to know the legal ramifications for Millie but cautioned her against going to a lawyer, who would also likely persuade her to engage their service “because they’re paid f***in’ liars”.
Martin suggested her nephew “who’d done ‘time’ and everything else” could break into the house and get the diary. Then she suggested torching the house.
The diary would be destroyed without Millie having to search for it and she would get an insurance payout.
Graeme Martin said they “had people” that knew - or would know - how to make the arson “untraceable”.
Martin said she had a relative with “lots of contacts in Black Power who’d do it for money”.
“Prospects will do it - arson is the easiest thing in the world and very hard to prove,” she said.
Martin then spoke about the possibility of all three of them travelling to Christchurch, driving a rental car to Dunedin, and watching the house for a couple of days, then Millie breaking in to hunt for her diary.
However, after further discussion, Martin said arson was “probably the best way - I’m sorry babe”.
She had a friend who had done forensics for Fire and Emergency New Zealand who had previously told her arson could not be traced if no accelerant was used. She could ask him how to start such a fire or she could google it, Martin said.
After that initial discussion, there were several more between Martin and the undercover officer (Graeme Martin was no longer included). The jury also heard some of those recorded conversations on Friday.
The officer said there were several times Martin coached her about how to start the fire. Millie encouraged her, saying she was committed to the idea and grateful for the help.
Martin told Millie she wouldn’t want her ex-husband in the house, “because you don’t want to live with that, darling”.
She told Millie not to speak to anyone else about the plan, including her husband, who she loved and trusted but said: “I don’t know about him”. She knew he wouldn’t lie for her over something like this.
When Martin next spoke to Millie about the plan, Graeme was in another room. Martin scribbled a note (later photographed by Millie) that read “pot of oil on high on the stove”. Once Millie had seen it, Martin took the note back off her.
They started discussing the most flammable oils that could be used for a pot fire. At one point, Martin went to the kitchen and brought back a block of Chefade to show Millie. By that stage, Graeme was watching TV in the other room, wearing headphones, so they didn’t need to worry about him hearing, Martin said.
A lot of kitchen fires started with a pot of oil, she said.
“As long as you put it on high on the big element, and leave it, and then do you know what, go and sit somewhere where you can see what happens.”
Martin told Millie to close all the windows in the house and open all the interior doors.
She could also put balls of crumpled up paper in cupboards but “you’ve got to be careful with that - they might see that as arson still, and they’re clever”.
She told Millie not to google anything incriminating on her laptop or phone and not to take her phone.
“Those sorts of deviant things I can help you out with,” Martin said.
In an earlier conversation, Millie recorded on February 13, 2020, Martin spoke about her father’s death.
“Dad was a stubborn prick, he really was, but f*** me dead he was 84 and f***ing harmless.”
She hadn’t wanted to pursue her allegations of sexual abuse by her father but had to in order to make a complaint about her brother John.
She said her father would still have given her the shirt off his back if she had asked for it.
Her brother on the other hand: “It was a pity it wasn’t him that died in the fire,” Martin said.