Police photographer gives evidence at Bain trial

Trevor Gardener gives his evidence yesterday. Photo / Getty Images

The High Court in Christchurch was yesterday shown graphic video footage of David Bain's family lying dead at his former Dunedin home.

But the jury had to watch the video, taken by former police photographer Trevor Gardener, on the second day of 36-year-old Bain's retrial for killing his parents and three siblings.

Prosecutors trying the case before a jury of five men and seven women chose to show the footage as the police's gathering of moving and still images after the June 1994 killings came under close scrutiny from Bain's legal team.

Helen Cull, QC, for Bain, asked Mr Gardener repeatedly whether he had edited the video footage he shot for presentation in court, but Mr Gardener said he could not recall doing so, even when it was put to him that his name had been captioned on it as producer.

Another former police photographer, Daniel Batchelor, said he remembered only that he "took out a bit of rubbish" from the video rather than editing it.

Mr Gardener said he must have failed to activate the time and date function on the video camera used, which would have provided an accurate record of when footage was shot.

"It was probably a decision made by myself. I didn't deem it necessary."

Ms Cull said there was concern about the movement of objects at the Bain house, such as shell casings, before and after being photographed by a still camera.

When questioned by Ms Cull, Mr Gardener conceded that items had been moved in different photographs of the same parts of the house. But it was not unusual for some items to be moved after initial photographs, perhaps in order to record other evidence.

Asked if he had any way of knowing when each of the still images was taken, he said the only record would have been one kept by the officer in charge of the crime scene.

Mr Gardener said he had kept a notebook from the time he was taking photographs at the Bain household, but it had since been lost.

Asked if he could identify his own photographs from those compiled into a booklet at the trial, Mr Gardener said he could recognise his own photographs.

"I know my own style of photography. I have been doing it for 30, 40-odd years."

But when questioned about whether he could positively identify one specific photograph as his own, Mr Gardener said he was unsure.

Ms Cull: "You can't really tell, can you?"

Mr Gardener: "It would be a fair comment. I would agree, yes."