-
Related
An exclusive interview David Bain has given to a women's magazine has attracted scepticism as rumours swirl about how much he was paid for the scoop.
Last month Bain was acquitted of murdering his parents and three siblings in Dunedin in 1994 in a retrial in the High Court at Christchurch.
David Bain chose to remain silent during his retrial and when he walked free, he spoke only a few words.
"Without the love of the people that have supported me since day one, I wouldn't have made it through this far," he said.
But in the women's magazine out on Sunday he claims to 'tell his story'.
"I kept asking myself, 'Why on earth am I in prison when it's so self-explanatory? I shouldn't be here. At the start, I had faith in the system, thinking it would do the right thing. It didn't. It betrayed me'," he says in the article.
Former women's magazine editor Wendyl Nissen says while it's a scoop, the real story remains untold.
"The problem with any story for a women's mag is that you need the triumph over adversity angle and you need some kind of emotional connection. And no-one has said to him 'what happened on the morning of June 20 1994?'" says Nissen.
The seven-page spread paints a picture of David Bain as a chatty and outgoing guy surrounded by friends and making the most of his freedom. But it lacks any detail about that terrible day.
"And by not talking about it and by not even addressing it in the article it just looks suspicious," says Nissen.
Media commentator Irene Gardiner says the magazine's story isn't
finished yet.
"To be fair there is a part two coming, perhaps some of that will
be covered, but I suspect not," she says.
Both Gardiner and Nissen are in no doubt money changed hands for the story. Fifty thousand dollars is the figure that's being bandied about. And Nissen remains sceptical about the end product.
"The story reeked of being very well checked and a lot of stuff cut out of it and a lot of conditions," she says.
Gardiner says Bain might have been better to take a different approach.
"Perhaps he would have served himself well to go with a more serious media and front up to some harder questions," she says.
The whole story may not be there and it may be a soft read, but New Idea have scored what other media have been wanting for a decade - a David Bain exclusive.
