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David Bain - Source: ONE News -
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TIMELINE OF THE DAVID BAIN CASE
David Bain has always had his loyal supporters but the doubts about
his conviction really gained momentum when former All Black Joe
Karam took up the fight.
New Zealand's first glimpse of David Bain was when he was carried grief stricken from the murder scene at Every Street, Dunedin in 1994.
But just four days later he was charged with the murder of his parents and three siblings, leading to one of the longest and most controversial criminal cases in New Zealand history.
The first major controversy came within three weeks of the murders, when the Bain family home was burnt down at the wider family's request. That action led to claims of evidence being destroyed.
David Bain was found guilty at his first trial in 1995 and sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 16 years. ONE News reporter John McDermott was there at the time and he said in his report on the verdict:
"David Bain sat down looking very pale. He had to be helped out
of the dock by two prison officers. He looked to be barely
conscious."
WATCH THE ORIGNAL STORY HERE
In the year following David Bain's conviction, former All Black Joe Karam took up his cause, funding an unsuccessful visit to the Privy Council in 1996.
In the first of several books about the case, Karam slammed the police case.
Among the 70 claims the major ones were that police bungled the scene examination, got critical timings wrong, made a premature arrest and that evidence was made to fit.
But a Police Complaints Authority report backed the way the police handled the case.
Four years after the murders came the defence teams' biggest breakthrough.
It claimed DNA testing reveals the David Bain fingerprints on the murder weapon were not made in human blood.
The defence went on building the case for the father, Robin Bain, being the killer, finding witnesses who supported claims that David's father was sleeping with his daughter Laniet.
This and other evidence failed to impress the Court of Appeal in 1995.
But two years ago the Privy Council saw it differently. Amidst emotional scenes David Bain was released on bail and the road to the retrial began .
