Battling for truth on barracks death

Grant Bain

Murray Bain has fought for three years to get at the truth about the fatal shooting of his brother Grant.

His struggle began with the uncovering of photographic evidence that showed the Army cadet died in barracks, not at hospital as the family had been told.

Yesterday, Mr Bain said the release of the report by High Court judge David Morris had finally exposed the failure of the Army and police to treat the case in an adequate and satisfactory way.

Grant Bain was shot by another cadet in 1981.

"My old man started the campaign from about 1981 to 1984," said Murray Bain. "He dropped it because it all just got too much for Mum [who has since died].

"He was constantly writing letters, going to interviews, going to meetings - just trying to get answers.

"But he finally had a gutsful. He was stopped by Mum because she just wanted to get on and remember Grant for the good times."

Mr Bain said he would pick over the report at the weekend with his brother and father, so it was too early to tell if the family felt vindicated by the findings.

Justice Morris found mistakes were made by authorities and that cadet Andrew Read should have been charged with manslaughter.

Read was instead convicted of careless use of a firearm. He was fined $200 and given 200 hours of community service.

No court martial followed, although Justice Morris found further charges brought by the Army would have been appropriate, despite legal advice at the time.

Read himself died in a forestry accident on the West Coast in 1998, aged 35.

Mr Bain said the report pleased him on two major counts.

"The first thing is that after 24 years of saying how this prick should have been charged with at least manslaughter, now we've got a High Court judge coming out and agreeing with us.

"The other one is that the judge's statement has said the NZ Army has got to accept some part-responsibility for the killing of Grant.

Mr Bain said he would accept Defence Minister Phil Goff's apology, but he expected it to be made in person, not over television, radio, or in the newspapers.

However, he felt the apology would be more appropriate coming from senior officers in the Army and police. "The saddest thing about the whole case of Grant is that he's now got half a dozen nieces and nephews, of which he only saw one, who was only three months old when he died.

"And now they've grown up, left school, got careers, moving on in their lives.

"And you know, they don't know who Uncle Grant is."