Steve Cullen: Criminal Lawyer on Mark Lundy's release from prison

It's expected twice-convicted double-murderer Mark Lundy will be slipped back into the community. 

He's been released from prison after more than 23 years for the murders of his wife Christine and 7-year-old daughter, Amber, in their Palmerston North home. 

The now 66-year-old has always maintained his innocence 

Criminal lawyer Steve Cullen told Mike Hosking where parolees are released is never made public. 

He says there'd be a risk of vigilante groups or media throngs if it was. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mark Lundy, speaking of crime, been released from prison back
among us. He spent twenty three years, of course, with
the murder of his wife and daughter. Current suppression orders
mean it can't be revealed where he will live now.
The question being asked, of course, as do we have
a right to know?

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now?

Speaker 1 (00:12):
The criminal lawyer Steve Cullen is back well as Steve,
very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
More very clear on this or is it case by case?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
No, it is very clear. They do not release where
people are going to be paroled too, with their addresses
will be because obviously they want to try and integrate
them back into the community. And if we run the
resk of vigilante groups, media, throngs all and all, they've
decided that it's far save for if we just simply
released these people and try and slip them back to
the community as best we can.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Very difficult, anyway, isn't it. In a country the size
of New Zealand at five million people. I think if
you put some energy into it, you could probably find
it anyway, couldn't you.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, absolutely right. We're a small country with a small population.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
And having said that, I side on this way. I
asked about the cases. So Lundy is convicted of a
murder of his wife and daughter, he's not a danger
to the wider community. That would be different to the
bloke who is a serial killer or a sex offender
who ran his time and is not entirely convinced the
parole boarder you shouldn't be behind bars forever.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Do you see the difference, Yes, I do see the distinction.
The prob of course makes the determination with somebody suitable
for release or not, but certainly the public interest and
somebody who's more likely to be a predator on as
fellow citizens would be somewhat higher.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
What's the financials running? There's no answer to this question.
But a guy's been in jail for twenty three years,
what's he doing? Is he going out to get a
job and doing well with the rest of his life?
Who is going to be on the benefit forever?

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Oh, well, there's hope. They seek a placement, They talk
to people who are going to be there to support them,
they have some sort of network, they'll ever residents are
going to inhabit. Hopefully there's some sort of employment plan.
They've been working towards that, and then they slowly slip
them often they have guided release, monitored release at the
beginning to see how well they go. They've already been

(01:59):
entering the community. There's determined that that's working. So then
they say, all right, now, let's see if we can
take the next step of having you fully reintegrated.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
And some good stuff might appreciate it. Steve Callen, criminal lawyer.
Funnily enough, I was watching an interview with Barry Hearn
who runs snooker globally. Eddie Hearn is the boxing guy.
Barry's his dad and runs darts and snooker. Anyway, I
was talking about the bloke who won the World championship,
who of course was done for match fixing. There were
about ten Chinese done for match fixing and a betting

(02:27):
scandal and stuff like that. And he was asked whether
or not this is right that a guy who's a
cheat and a convicted cheat and was found cheating only
got banned for two years. And he's very much of
the let's move forward. You can't look in the rearview mirror.
You can't punish somebody if the punishment is the punishment.
You can't keep looking back forever. And Lundy served his
time and we either have the system or we don't.

(02:50):
And you can't punish a bloke after twenty three years
and go, I wonder where he lives. Oh, I don't
really want him in the community. I mean. Or if
you don't like that, then you change the entire system.
And I don't see that we're changing the entire system,
are we?

Speaker 2 (03:03):
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