Double convicted murderer Mark Lundy will be released from prison next month after more than 23 years behind bars, but he will not walk free.
Lundy was convicted in 2002 for the killing of his wife Christine and daughter Amber in Palmerston North in 2000 and was sentenced to life with a 20-year non parole period.
In 2013, the Privy Council quashed the convictions and ordered a retrial. Two years later, he was convicted again, and the original sentence was reimposed.
He became eligible for parole in 2023 and, at his third hearing yesterday, it was granted.
Lawyer Marie Dyhrberg KC told 1News, as was the case with all paroled prisoners, Lundy would be subject to release conditions.
“They are conditions that relate to circumstances: Where he lives, who he associates with, where he might work, all of those things.”
Any breach of those conditions would mean Lundy would be recalled to prison where he would continue serving his sentence.
“That is why he is not free in the sense of freedom.”
Lundy has always denied carrying out the killings and continues to fight to prove his innocence, decades after the deaths.
Dyhrberg said asserting his innocence would not have prevented him being paroled but would have made it more difficult to achieve.
“It’s almost a Catch-22 situation. If you don’t admit the offending, then that will often preclude you from engaging in certain programmes. If you don’t engage properly in these various programmes for rehabilitation and reintegration, you remain at risk.
“It is harder if you are denying, but nonetheless, you can still get there.”
She said continuing to fight to clear his name would not be held against him by the Parole Board.
“The Parole Board already knows that he is maintaining his innocence, so any citizen, if they can say, ‘I did not do this’, and they wish to take legitimate steps to try and prove their innocence or show maybe you know, false or wrongful conviction, then they are entitled to do that and won’t hold against them at all.”
Work to continue to clear Lundy’s name — lawyer
Lundy’s lawyer, Julie-Anne Kincade KC, said extensive preparation was undertaken ahead of the parole hearing.
“The parole board will always have concerns, and they’ve expressed those concerns at earlier hearings that he’s had, so we were able to look carefully at the issues that they thought were important and then do the work that helped satisfy them that those concerns are ameliorated sufficiently for him to be granted.”
When and where Lundy would be released would be kept private, she said.
“The people who need to be notified of all these details do know, and it’s just not information that needs to be in the wider public domain. That’s for the safety of Mark and the people he’s living with.”
Asked whether Lundy would continue efforts to clear his name, Kincade said an application with the Criminal Cases Review Commission had been underway for “some years now”.
“Work will just carry on with that — as it has been.”
