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Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: We knew the Lundy pictures would be out sooner or later

Author
九一星空无限talk ZB,
Publish Date
Thu, 8 May 2025, 7:56pm
Mark Lundy was spotted today after being released from prison yesterday. Photo / George Heard
Mark Lundy was spotted today after being released from prison yesterday. Photo / George Heard

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: We knew the Lundy pictures would be out sooner or later

Author
九一星空无限talk ZB,
Publish Date
Thu, 8 May 2025, 7:56pm

Mark Lundy has divided our workplace out there.

Some of my colleagues think that it's really gross that the Herald, who we work with, have taken photos of Mark Lundy today after he got out of jail yesterday.

Now, the photos aren't anything particularly special - he's sitting in the passenger seat of a car, all you can really see is his face, that funny little beard he's got, some sunglasses and his latte coloured hoodie. It tells you nothing and it shows you almost nothing.

And I suspect the reason it shows you almost nothing is because there are very heavy suppression orders about where he lives at the moment. So anything that identifies the town outside of the car, I would imagine, cannot be published.

So they're a little bit limited in what they can show you.

But even though there's almost nothing to see in these photos, boy, are we clicking on this particular story. It was, when I last checked, the most read and most viewed story on the Herald - so people are interested.

And shouldn't the media be reporting and taking photos of things that we're interested in? I would say yes.

Now, I can understand why people are grossed out by this. I suspect a lot of that comes down to the fact that there is significant doubt amongst some people as to Lundy's guilt - just as there was doubt with David Bain, just as there was doubt with Scott Watson.

And so the feeling is, if you think he hasn't done it, then you feel gross about the fact that he keeps on being harassed after serving his time.

But remember, until he proves otherwise, he is a man who was convicted of murdering his wife and daughter, and his trial and his behaviour around that gripped the nation and frankly turned him into one of the most famous - or infamous - people in the country.

So he is a legitimate news story

And it's not really a question of whether the Herald should have taken those photos, it's actually just a question of where you were going to see that photo first. Because you were going to see it somewhere.

If it wasn't on the Herald, it would be on some other news outlet, or just someone popping down to the local coffee shop, seeing Mark Lundy there, taking a photo of him, and putting it on social media.

Cause we all know what he looks like, and clearly we're all interested in him - and it was going to happen sooner or later, wasn't it?

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