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Home / New Zealand

David Bain trial: Latest updates

Herald online
14 May, 2009 04:13 AM8 mins to read

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David Bain listens to evidence at his retrial in the Christchurch High Court. Pool photo

David Bain listens to evidence at his retrial in the Christchurch High Court. Pool photo

With the defence in the David Bain retrial beginning its case, we're providing live updates throughout the day. Hit refresh to see the latest from Christchurch High Court. Or you can follow us on Twitter.

4.12pm: The fact that David Bain suffered post-traumatic amnesia following the discovery of five Bain family members dead in their home, suggests neither guilt or innocence, a psychiatrist has told the court.

Dr Philip Brinded was Bain's psychotherapist and visited him in prison, following the first trial.

Under cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Kieran Raftery, he was asked if he was aware of a study of offenders which found 70 percent of them experienced post-trauma amnesia.

He said he was aware of the research.

But Dr Brinded said that did not determine guilt or innocence.

The evidence is important because during the first trial in 1995, Bain said: "When I was interviewed by the detectives, I made it clear that I did not go into any of the other rooms, other than my mother's and my father's room".

"I said that to the detectives because I didn't remember," the evidence was read to this jury panel in court previously.

The court has adjourned for the day.

3.52pm: David Bain showed no signs of mental disorder in prison, the psychotherapist who treated Bain has told the Christchurch High Court.

"He would always become distressed when talking about events of the day that his family died," Dr Philip Brinded said.

Bain, 37, is on trial for the murder of his parents, his two sisters and his brother in their Dunedin home.

His defence team argues that his father Robin Bain, 58, shot dead the family before turning the rifle on himself.

Dr Brinded said Bain showed signs of his post-traumatic stress disorder improving.

He was also asked about deja vu by Bain's lawyer Helen Cull, QC.

The issue of deja vu is important because a Crown witness and former friend of Bain earlier told the court that Bain raised with her the concept of deja vu and asked if she knew what it was.

She earlier told the court that Bain gave examples of being able to see things before they happened. He found it difficult to articulate this.

Dr Brinded said deja vu is a normal experience, particularly in young people and anxious people.

He said only 10 per cent of the population report not experiencing deja vu.

Dr Brinded said it was one of the most "unusual and disturbing experiences that a normal person can have".

He also said the trances that one Crown witness said Bain went into during a concert, is "normal dissociative experience or day dreaming".

3.08pm: David Bain had no signs of mental disorder or a personality disorder, says a leading psychiatrist.

Dr Philip Brinded is a forensic psychiatrist and chief psychiatrist for the Canterbury District Health Board.

Dr Brinded visited David Bain while he was in prison in July and August, after five of his family members were found dead in their home in June, 1994.

"David Bain was extremely distressed at rimes during both interviews and at times quite difficult to interview," Dr Brinded said.

He said Bain showed no signs of a mental or personality disorder.

"I did not believe the insanity defence would be availible," Dr Brinded said.

He said Bain was suffering from acute stress reaction and in time that can develop into post-traumatic stress disorder.

Dr Brinded told the High Court that in 1996, after Bain's appeal process seemed to be exhausted, he was contacted by a distressed Bain.

He said he became Bain's psychotherapist and said Bain was finding difficult to deal with the deaths of his family and prison life.

Dr Brinded said Bain was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

2.36pm: David Bain was "relaxed and convivial" at a rehearsal for the play Oedipus Rex on the day before the murders.

Dr Harold Love taught English at the University of Otago in 1994.

He said he remembered Bain "as being friendly and convivial and horsing about with the others in the normal manner," Dr Love said.

Dr Love said Bain had a remarkable voice with a "remarkable range".

2.28pm: A friend of Margaret Bain has told a court that the police did not take her evidence seriously when she came forward with information about Robin Bain being depressed.

Following the first trial, Joanna Dunn went to the Napier police station to tell police what Margaret had said of Robin Bain's depression.

Mrs Dunn said the policeman at the front desk said the information would not be useful because Mrs Dunn did not have a witness and such a lot of time had passed.

"Just to satisfy us, he said he would let us write a few messages down and he would dispose of it.

"There was a rubbish tin just under the counter and he crumpled it and threw it in the rubbish tin," Mrs Dunn said.

2.18pm: Robin Bain was depressed as early as 1978, a family friend has told the court.

Joanna Dunn and her Presbyterian minister husband met with Margaret and Robin Bain - who were missionaries at the time on leave from Papua New Guinea.

She also knew Margaret Bain's mother, Peg Cullen.

Margaret and Robin visited Mrs Dunn and her husband in 1978 to show them some slides from their trip to Papua New Guinea.

She said Margaret told her that she was "concerned" about Robin's depression.

"She said she found his depressive states were worrying her," Mrs Dunn said.

She said she recommended a book to Margaret, but Margaret did not take her advice.

Mrs Dunn said: "She was really concerned that he might..." but she was cut off by Bain's layer, Michael Reed, QC who said Judge Graham Panckhurst had made a ruling on part of her evidence.

1.00pm: The retrial of David Bain at the Christchurch High Court has been adjourned until 2pm.

12.51pm: David Bain was "whimpering, crying and shaking" when an ambulance officer arrived at the Bain family house.

Robert Cooper was running the St John Dunedin Ambulance station and communications centre on the morning of June 20, 1994 - the morning that five Bain family members were found dead in their home.

"David Bain was sitting at the foot of the bed with a blanket and appeared to be in a very distressed state," Mr Cooper said.

Bain, 37, is on trial for the murder of his parents, his two sisters and his brother in their Dunedin home.

His defence team argues that his father Robin Bain, 58, shot dead the family before turning the rifle on himself.

Mr Cooper was also asked by Bain's lawyer Michael Reed, QC if he had heard gurgling noises coming from a dead body in his experience as an ambulance officer.

The evidence is important because the prosecution says Bain would have to be the killer to hear Laniet gurgle, but the defence are arguing it was possible she survived beyond the three shots.

Mr Cooper said there are times when bodies make a "rumbling, groaning noise - perhaps a gurgle" even after death.

A body could make a groaning sound between half-an-hour and one hour after death, he told the court.

11.34am: David Bain was a favourite of his father, the High Court in Christchurch has heard.

A man who stayed with Laniet Bain in a Dunedin boarding house has said Laniet told him that David and Robin Bain would go way fishing, hunting and camping together.

The man has interim name suppression.

"David was definitely a favourite," the man said.

He also said Laniet was fearful of her father and going back to the family house.

The man said he was surprised Laniet was in the house on the day of the Bain family killings.

"That was the last place in the world she wanted to be," he said.

11.31am: Laniet Bain told a fellow boarding house lodger that her father was "touching her in ways he should not have been".

A man who was staying in a boarding house with Laniet Bain in 1994 said he had a conversation with Laniet one evening that went into the early hours of the morning.

The man, who has interim name suppression, has told the High Court in Christchurch that Laniet told him she was a prostitute and that her pimp was threatening to go to her parents.

"She was trying to away from that sort of work," the man said.

He said Laniet also said she had been sexually abused by her father, Robin Bain, and she was worried the same thing could be happening to her sister, Arawa.

"She wanted her out of that situation, she wanted her out," the man said.

He said he had guessed Laniet was a prostitute because she would get a cell phone call before leaving in the evenings.

The man also said Laniet divulged that she had been sexually abused by her father and she was fearful of him and the family house.

He said she was also jealous of David Bain who spent time with his father hunting and fishing.

10.18am: The retrial of David Bain will be late in getting underway this morning with legal arguments heard in chambers.

Bain, 37, is on trial for the murder of his parents, his two sisters and his brother in their Dunedin home on June 20, 1994.

His defence team argues that his father Robin Bain, 58, shot dead the family before turning the rifle on himself.

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