KEY POINTS:
The David Bain appeal at London's Privy Council today heard new evidence of a misfiring gun.
Former All Black Joe Karam, a long-time supporter of convicted multiple murderer Bain, discovered evidence at the weekend that has never been aired in public that he believes may clear Bain's name.
Michael Reed QC, representing Bain, told five Law Lords of Karam's findings that ESR scientist Peter Hentschell had found that the gun used in the 1994 killings of five members of Bain's family near Dunedin had misfired before a final shot killed David Bain's father Robin.
Bain, then 23, was found guilty in May 1995 of murdering his mother Margaret, his father Robin, sisters Arawa, 19, and Laniet, 18, and brother Stephen, 14.
Mr Reed said Mr Karam's findings gave weight to the defence claim that Robin Bain killed his family before committing suicide rather than David Bain killing them.
Mr Karam said: "The significance is that the evidence is not compatible with David attempting to kill his father and having a misfire but is potentially compatible with Robin Bain having a misfire in the process of attempting to kill himself."
Mr Karam said it was impossible Robin Bain could have knelt before David Bain while David Bain removed the misfiring bullet from the gun.
Mr Reed told the Law Lords on the second day of the five-day appeal that "no-one referred to the live bullet on the floor" at previous trials.
He added that a lens from spectacles David Bain may have been wearing found in his brother Stephen Bain's room was found under an ice skating boot and had nothing to do with any possible scuffle when Stephen Bain was murdered.
Mr Reed said Robin Bain could have found a key to a trigger lock on the murder weapon -- that it could not was one of three "compelling points" used by the prosecution to convict David Bain.
Mr Reed added the defence's 61 "important points" it used to convict Bain were all disputable -- but the prosecution would still use the "mass of evidence" strategy "even if I could prove David Bain was on the moon" during the murders.
"What we're looking at is a totally different case as to what went before the jury."
The defence petition ends tomorrow, when the Crown will begin their response.
All the Bain family members died from .22 gunshot wounds to their heads.
- NZPA