Witnesses to tell of Bain family incest, court told

David Bain is on trial for the murders of his parents and three siblings. Photo / Pool

Witnesses will say Laniet Bain was having an incestuous relationship with her father, The High Court at Christchurch has heard.

The prosecution ended its case in the High Court murder trial of David Bain this afternoon.

The last of the 130 prosecution witnesses have been heard today.

The jury has asked to re-hear the recording of David Bain's 111 call on the morning his family were killed, as well as viewing police video footage taken inside the Bain family home for a second time.

After this, and any legal arguments, the defence case can open its case in the trial. The defence has said it expects to call between 40 and 60 witnesses.

David Bain, 37, is on trial for the murder of his family, and today his lawyer, Michael Reed QC, told the High Court of people who had made statements about a sexual relationship existing between Laniet Bain and her father, Robin Bain.

This was raised by Mr Reed during his questioning of Detective Senior Sergeant Kallum Croudis, who was second in charge of a police investigation into Bain prior to the trial currently underway.

Mr Reed put to Mr Croudis that the police investigation had not been thorough, because some of these people making the allegations of incest had not been interviewed by police. Mr Croudis agreed police could have chosen to speak to certain people mentioned by Mr Reed.

The court has already heard that Laniet, 18, had worked as a prostitute.

One person, who also worked as a prostitute, had given a statement about her knowledge of an incestuous relationship involving Laniet. Another had made the statement on a television documentary, Mr Reed said.

The defence say the incest, and the fear of it getting out, was a motive for Robin Bain, 58, shooting his family and then himself.

Earlier, David Bain said things were "going downhill" in his family's home in the months before his family were killed.

The comment was made in evidence Bain gave on the stand in his first murder trial in Dunedin in 1995. This evidence was today read to the jury in his High Court retrial in Christchurch.

Questioned in 1995 by prosecutor Bill Wright, Bain accepted that in the months before the killings, on June 20, 1994, the family home was filthy and cluttered. He agreed he was concerned about the state of hygiene in the kitchen.

Asked if housework and basic hygiene had been given up on, Bain said: "Yeah, I suppose so". In the first half of 1994, things were not normal in the house and "going downhill a bit".

The retrial has heard from a Bain family friend, Barbara Short, that Bain's mother Margaret had strange beliefs and could be considered "slightly mental".

Margaret had been using a pendulum to "divine" what she should buy.

Asked in the 1995 trial if he accepted his mother had started to act in a strange manner, Bain said: "I suppose...people outside, they would call it strange, yes. I did find the pendulum weird. But it didn't affect our relationship in any way. So it didn't ever bother me".

Mrs Short used the term "dysfunctional" to describe the Bain family in 1991.

Asked if he accepted this comment, Bain said: "That is a perception of someone from the outside. I mean, I love my family and I'm sure.....everybody has friction. There was friction in the family, but there was nothing that I could see that I would term abnormal. I felt my family was close, and a lot closer than your average normal family."

Bain said he could not account for injuries on his face that were noted when he was examined on the day of the killings.

"I can't remember how I got them. But I do know I did not have the bruise or the scrape on my knee while doing the paper round, or immediately after it, on entering the house."

The prosecution says Bain got blood on him after shooting dead his parents and three siblings, and washed his bloodied jersey to cover it up.

Asked in 1995 if he could account for blood spots on the inside of his duvet cover on his bed, Bain said could not, but did remember his cat being on the bed. He said he could not account for blood on the light switch in his bedroom.

Asked by Mr Wright if he could account for his palm print being on the washing machine in blood, Bain said: "No.....but I did put on the wash, so if I had touched some blood I would expect to find at least some sort of print there".

He said he could not account for blood spots in the basin in the laundry/bathroom area, and could not recall any blood being there when he washed his hands after returning from his paper round on the morning of the shootings.

Bain said while it was pitch black when he returned home from his paper round, shortly after 6.40am, he did not turn his bedroom light on to take off his shoes, take off his walkman, and hang his paper bag on the back of his door.

Bain also said he could not account for his fingerprints on the rifle used to kill his family, but accepted he must have touched it.

Bain, 37, denies shooting his parents and three siblings in June, 1994, but told his first murder trial in 1995 there were several things in the house he could not account for following the killings.

A fingerprint expert has told the retrial that he identified fingerprints from Bain, of "recent origin" being on the rifle found next to the body of David's father, Robin, 58.

Bain's defence team say Robin used the rifle to shoot his family and then himself.

Bain told the 1995 trial he found his father's body on the morning of June 20, 1994 after returning from his paper round, but did not recall seeing the rifle next to his father.

Asked if he could account for his prints being on the rifle, Bain said: "No, I can't account for that, because I don't remember touching the gun at all that morning. All I can say is that I must have picked it up at some stage, but I do not recall touching the gun at all, or seeing it".

The last time he had used the rifle was in January/February 1994, he said.

Bain said he could also not explain what his mother's glasses were doing in his bedroom.

The prosecution in his retrial say Bain wore the glasses in the killings, and a lens fell from the frames during a struggle in the bedroom of David's brother, Stephen, 14.

Bain agreed bloodied white gloves found in Stephen's room were his. He had purchased them for a ball. But he could not explain how they had got in Stephen's room.

He said his father would sometimes come into his room and might know where things such as the gloves were kept.

Bain, 37, is on trial for the murder of his parents and three siblings in their Dunedin home on June 20, 1994. His defence team say his father Robin, 58, shot dead his family before turning the rifle on himself.