The case of convicted multiple murderer David Bain returns to the Court of Appeal this week for what could be the last step in the ongoing fight to clear his name.
On June 20, 1994, Bain's parents, two sisters and younger brother were shot to death in their Andersons Bay, Dunedin,
home. A year later, Bain was convicted of their murders and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Bain, now 31, has always maintained he returned home from his paper round to find his family dead.
The appeal starts in Wellington today before three Court of Appeal judges.
The defence contended his father, Robin, was responsible. Depressed and about to be exposed for an incestuous relationship with 17-year-old daughter Laniet, Robin Bain shot his wife and three youngest children before turning the gun on himself, it maintained.
An appeal to the Court of Appeal in December 1995 was unsuccessful. The Privy Council rejected a subsequent application for a second appeal relating to the exclusion of evidence.
Some months after the Privy Council decision, Dunedin QC Colin Withnall was asked by Bain supporter and former All Black Joe Karam to review the Bain file.
Karam's book David and Goliath was released in 1997.
In June 1998, Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright was petitioned to pardon Bain.
In December 2000, the Governor-General asked the Court of Appeal for an opinion on several questions raised on Bain's behalf.
As a result of the court's consideration, the Governor-General was advised there was sufficient possibility of a mistrial having occurred to warrant a full reference to the Court of Appeal for a fresh appeal.
In February this year, the case was referred back to the court for a further appeal, and that hearing begins today.
- NZPA
