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The jury of seven men and five women is selected for the Bain trial. Bain pleads not guilty to five charges of murder.
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James Doyle, the officer effectively in charge of the Bain investigation in 1994, is forced to answer defence allegations that the investigation was incompetent and biased against David Bain.
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The jury hears that police entered the Bain home to find David lying on the floor weeping and saying his family “were all dead”. One of the officers said Bain later appeared as though he was having a seizure or a fit.
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Ambulance officers who attended the crime scene said Bain had lain in the foetal position and appeared to fake a fit and being unconscious.
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A police officer working at the scene on the day of the murders admits moving evidence in the form of glasses with a missing lens, after David asked for his glasses while lying on the floor in his bedroom. Detective Terry van Turnhout says he had not mentioned it at the time for fear of criticism.
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“They’re all dead. They’re all dead.” The jury hears Bain’s first words in his 111 call. The operator who took the call says he had dealt with hundreds of traumatic medical calls and Bain was unique, in his experience, in his ability to relay simple facts.
Bain said he was unable to explain why he had waited 25 minutes to make the call and why he had said all his family members were dead when he had only seen his parents. -
A Crown computer expert witness agrees he inadvertently misled the jury in Bain’s first trial because a police timing error was not reported to him. This skewed the results of the time he calculated the computer was turned on. The start up time was important because the family's killer must have turned on the computer, and written the message: "I'm sorry, you are the only one who deserved to stay," on the morning of the murders.
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The police detective in charge of the case concedes his handling of the investigation had holes in it, following a grilling from the defence.
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The court is shown two bloodstained dress gloves allegedly used by the family’s killer, with the Crown alleging David discarded the gloves in Stephen’s room during the murders.
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Detective Milton Weir denies misleading David Bain's 1995 trial about a lens said to implicate the alleged murderer. He says he had made a mistake in pointing out to the jury in the first trial where he found a single lens in Stephen Bain's bedroom, due to a special effect in the photo. The lens was a vital clue in the case because it matched a spectacles frame found in Bain’s room. The Crown alleges he used the spectacles for the shootings, but that they were damaged in a struggle with Stephen.
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The court hears that a bloodied hand left fingerprints on the rifle used in the murder of the Bain family.
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Weir admits a "Hang Bain" slogan he painted on his house was "inappropriate".
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Former Environmental Science and Research forensic scientist, Peter Hentschel, admits he did no testing to support his view that bloodied footprints implicated David Bain as the killer of his family. Instead his conclusion was based on his 40 years experience, he said. No gunshot residue was found on Robin or David’s hands, according to Mr Hentschel.
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Former ESR scientist Peter Cropp says blood on Bain's socks was more likely to have fallen onto them than been stepped in. Clothing in the laundry had blood on it, but appeared to have been diluted with water - though not enough blood to test to see whose it was. He also says there was no animal blood on the murder weapon, despite defence claims Bain's prints were made earlier in animal blood. Blood on Robin's pants shown to be his own.
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Former ESR forensic scientist Peter Cropp says he was shocked when he found out test plates relating to the blood on the rifle that was used to shoot the Bain family were missing. Cropp says blood found on a curtain near the body of Robin probably came from a source close to the curtain.
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Crown pathologist Alexander Dempster shows the court grisly pictures of the wounds sustained by the Bain family.
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Alexander Dempster says he had never seen a self-inflicted gunshot to the head that was “even close” to the path of the bullet that killed Robin Bain. It is revealed that he told the Crown he could no longer give a firm opinion that Bain could not have heard gurgling from Laniet when he got back from his paper round.
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Dr Dempster concedes that defence explanations over how Robin Bain could have shot himself were feasible. He said he was aware of a recent car accident victim who had received fatal injuries and was gurgling for 15 minutes afterwards.
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A forensic pathologist tells the court that the only explanation for Bain hearing Laniet “gurgling” after being shot was her trying to breathe through blood-filled air passages. Professor James Ferris also says the shot which killed Robin Bain was probably fired from close proximity. However, Wellington pathologist, Ken Thomson, says the shot was fired from a distance of 100 to 200mm away.
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A pathologist tells the jury that test firings of the murder rifle show Robin Bain did not commit suicide, as the shot was fired from 300 to 400mm away. The defence says a live bullet found beside Robin resulted from a misfire. It says that if the Crown is right, David would have had to clear the misfeed as he tried to shoot his father while waiting in the dark, raising a "barmy" scenario. Police armourer Robert Ngamoke says the rifle only misfired once during testing.
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Environmental Science and Research forensic scientist, Kevan Walsh, suggests Robin Bain could have made the bloodied footprint found in the Bain house after the murders. Mr Walsh also says Robin's head wound was more likely to have resulted from a shot fired from a distance than a shot fired in a suicide.
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Justice Panckhurst questions the evidence given that suggests Bain could not have made the bloodied sock print as his feet were too big. He says standing in a bath of blood, as scientists had done, and standing on a bloodied carpet before making the footprint would produce different results.
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David and Laniet seemed more like a couple than brother and sister, according to a former friend of Laniet, with Laniet often referring to David as “my David”, the jury hears. A Dunedin optometrist says that Margaret’s glasses were good enough to allow David see properly, even though they were not his own. The Crown alleges Bain wore the glasses while shooting his family and lost a lens while fighting with Stephen.
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A police fingerprint expert says Bain’s sharp and recent fingerprints could not have got there by picking up the rifle to take a look.
Kim Jones says the fingerprints were deposited by fingers covered in blood. Witness Dorothy Duthie, who worked with Robin, says they never had any concerns about Robin Bain's mental health. -
A witness discloses that her father was a juror at the first trial in 1995, but says this had not impacted her testimony. She also tells of Laniet being scared of David.
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Bain told a friend he had a premonition of the murder of his family, a friend tells the court.
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Laniet Bain’s former high school teacher says Laniet had claimed she had a “black baby” after being raped in Papua New Guinea. A witness who processed David Bain at Dunedin Prison says he noticed scratch marks and bruising around Bain’s right shoulder, which was consistent with him being grabbed, clawed and pushed.
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David’s auntie, Valerie, tells how Bain hated his father and had wanted to micro-manage his family’s funeral. Robin's brother, Michael Bain, asked David whether or not he had done it. Bain did not say "he didn't do it", but said: "I've told my side to the police and I stick to that."
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Tests carried out since Bain’s 1995 trial showed blood spots on his socks, shorts and shirt contained Stephen Bain’s DNA, the court hears. ESR scientist Sally-Ann Harbison also says the rifle forestock, where Bain’s fingerprints were found, did not test positive for human DNA.
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Following his family’s funeral Bain talks of “black hands” trying to take him away, prosecution witness Jan Clark tells the court. She also says Margaret had told her she had talked to Bain about the inappropriate way he was behaving towards his brother and sisters.
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The court is told that Margaret Bain believed in previous lives, that she was related to Winston Churchill and the Egyptian pharaohs and that she was possessed. She was also using a pendulum to help her decide what to buy at the supermarket.
Margaret and Robin were polite and reasonable with each other, and "Robin was ever-loving, very patient and trying to keep the family together", neighbour Barbara Short says. The court hears that Bain changed his account about hearing Laniet "gurgling". -
Detective Sergeant Kallum Croudis says he knew of no evidence of an incestuous relationship between Robin and Laniet Bain. Croudis reads an interview to the court conducted with Bain shortly before his arrest. He says Bain could not explain the blood found on his clothes, his bloody fingerprints on the rifle or blood found in the laundry.
After 130 witnesses, 3000 pages of transcript and nearly nine weeks of evidence and legal argument, the Crown closes its case. -
The defence indicates that Bain will not be giving evidence in his own defence.
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The defence calls its first witness, educational psychologist Cyril Wilden, who tells the court Robin Bain was depressed and that two of his pupils had reported being hit by him. Robin Davidson, the principal at a neighbouring school, also tells of violent stories from young students being published in the school newsletter.
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A former Dunedin prostitute, who worked with Laniet Bain, say Laniet had talked of being raped by her father and having his baby. Robin’s cousin Michael Mayson says he heard police say: "David is the enemy and we are going to get him," at a briefing for the family on the day of the funeral. Neurologist Tim Anderson, tells the court that what had been described by witnesses as a fit allegedly faked by David Bain when emergency staff arrived at his house on June 20, 1994, was most likely genuine.
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A psychologist tells the court that Bain was neither a psychopath nor insane, after him examining him in 1994. A former theatre director says Bain was relaxed and jovial during play rehearsals the day before the murders. The court also hears from an associate of Laniet’s who says Laniet had spoken of her pimp threatening to "out" her to her family. A Kaiapoi man tells the court Laniet feared Arawa was also being sexually abused by Robin.
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A witness says that Laniet Bain had said she was going to reveal details of her alleged incest with her father and her career as a prostitute shortly before she was killed.
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British forensic firearms expert Philip Boyce demonstrates 12 ways Robin Bain could have placed the rifle to inflict the fatal wound. He says the shot could have been fired by as far away as 22cm and still been suicide.
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Forensic pathologist Robert Chapman, who performed the autopsy on Princess Diana, tells the trial that Robin Bain’s temple wound was consistent with suicide.
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English fingerprint expert, Carl Lloyd, tells the court he could not see any evidence from photographs that David Bain’s fingerprints on the murder rifle had been put there by bloodied fingers, as the Crown alleged. Marjolein Copeland, a doctor, says Laniet Bain said it would be difficult to abstain from sex during four days she was going to spend with her father, after she was advised she might have an STD.
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Wellington urologist Grant Russell says no conclusions should be drawn from Robin dying with a full bladder. The Crown alleged Robin could not have been the killer because he would have emptied his bladder first. Adrenalin, agitation, an enlarged prostate and anti-depressive drugs could inhibit the need to urinate, he says. In cross-examination he agrees age could increase the urge to go in the morning. Pathologist Stephen Cordner says Robin’s head wound was compatible with self-affliction.
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Evidence regarding Laniet is read from a statement by missing defence witness Dean Cottle. The court had already heard from a witness who said Laniet was using Cottle's telephone to conduct her sex business and that Cottle was blackmailing her into having sex with him by threatening to tell her parents. The court hears that Laniet was going to tell her family that she was a prostitute on the weekend before her death.
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Prosecution and defence finish presenting their cases.
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Justice Panckhurst sums up for the jury, telling them to put aside emotions. Jury retires.
