David Bain's retrial for the murder of his family has been set down to start on August 11. It was previously scheduled to start on May 11.
During a telephone conference between the trial judge and counsel yesterday dates were set for many pre-trial applications over the casealready filed with the court. These will be heard in the High Court in Christchurch on February 22, March 19 and the week starting May 12.
Bain was released on bail in May after the Privy Council quashed his convictions for murdering his mother, Margaret, his father, Robin, sisters Arawa, 19, and Laniet, 18, and brother Stephen, 14, at the family home in Dunedin in 1994.
The council left it up to the New Zealand justice system to decide whether a retrial for Bain, who had served nearly 13 years behind bars, was in the public interest. The Solicitor-General ruled that it was, and the retrial was set for this year.
His defence team - Michael Reed, QC, Helen Cull, QC, and lawyer Paul Morten - are battling with the Legal Services Agency (LSA) to increase funding to expand the team. Joe Karam, who campaigned for Bain's release from jail, said a proper defence could not be mounted with the resources the team had. It wants more legal aid to boost the team by another four solicitors to sift through the more than 100,000 pages of evidence.
Mr Reed, who argued Bain's case at the Privy Council, temporarily withdrew from the case late last year saying there was an imbalance in resources compared with the heavily resourced Crown legal team.
The case is expected to cost taxpayers up to $15 million, with around $4 million of that devoted to legal aid.
An extra four defence counsel would add at least a further $500,000 to the bill.
