8 October 2013
(Update 11 Oct - Lundy should be out on bail today.)
Expect to see Mark Lundy out on bail any day.
His conviction has been quashed, and given that Bain was allowed bail in similar circumstances, I would expect Lundy to be walking free by the end of the week.
I want to write a vicious diatribe about the Privy Council sticking its aristocratic nose into our justice, but I cannot, because as with Bain, Arthur Thomas & Teina Pora, the cops screwed up, and it is that which has allowed Lundy's appeal to succeed.
It is blindingly obvious to everyone that Lundy is a cynical, murdering piece of sub-human vermin who chopped his daughter to pieces after doing the same to his wife. There is no chance whatsoever some P-crazed murderer killed the pair, yet it is now quite likely that Lundy will be a free man by early next year.
Now that doubt has been cast on the reliability of the spinal fluid evidence, the timing of Lundy's alleged drive will come under scrutiny - and it will be found wanting.
In Lundy's case, it seems clear to me that the police were so in love with being able to put Lundy up as the prime suspect that yet again, they utterly failed to provide credible evidence to remove doubt. Instead, they backed themselves that emotion would over-rule their deficiencies, and that worked - as far as the jury was concerned.
Now that the horror of the crimes has been removed and Lundy has become a sympathetic figure, I expect him, like the mass-murdering David Bain, to walk free.
So where did the cops screw up?
It should have been obvious to the investigators that their proposed time frame didn't work. That means one of two things: that Lundy had an accomplice, or the time of the crimes was much later, in the early hours of the morning. Only the insane or complicit would support a man who hacked his wife and child to bits so insanely that he left a reverse shadow on the wall behind where he stood; a silhouette etched in the blood splattered from his victims, so if there was an accomplice, that's where he would be. Either way, it was certain the Crown case could not stand on the evidence provided, and now we're seeing those pigeons come home to roost.
There is no doubt that Lundy is guilty, but there is equally no doubt he will get away with it.
The only thing we can safely do is try to be mollified that he has at least spent 12 years inside.
Copyright © Alan Charman