David Bain
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- For David Bain, the Australian rules footballer, see David Bain (footballer)
David Bain (born March 27, 1972) is a New Zealander who, in May 1995, was convicted for the murder of his parents and siblings the previous year. He is currently serving a sentence of life imprisonment.
He was born in Dunedin, the first child of Margaret Arawa and Robin Irving Bain. Soon after, the family moved to outback Papua New Guinea where Robin worked as a missionary teacher. It was 15 years before they returned to New Zealand in 1988 when Margaret and Robin were having relationship problems.
Once back, they returned to their home at 65 Every Street, Dunedin. It took David a year to settle back into school, but he joined the school choir and in the seventh form his grades improved and he went to university, encouraged by his parents. He dropped out of university and was on unemployment benefit and working at Opera Alive for a period before returning to university to study classical music and professional voice training lessons.
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[edit] The day of the murders
On the morning of 20 June 1994, five members of the Bain family were shot dead. Four days after the murders, David Bain (22) was charged by the police with the murder of his family.
The dead were: Robin Bain (59), his wife Margaret (50), their daughters Arawa (19), Laniet (18) and son Stephen (14).
[edit] Prosecution Theory
The following is quoted text from crime.co.nz
David wakes around 5 am, gets dressed and goes to his wardrobe and pulls out his .22 rifle. He unlocks the trigger guard, attaches the silencer and loads the ten -round magazine. He takes a pair of white gloves from a drawer, and puts them on. He wears a pair of his mother's glasses because his are being repaired.
He goes into his sister Laniet's room (the study), where he shoots her twice in the head as she lies sleeping. He goes to his mother's room and shoots her in the forehead. In the room off his mother's, he finds Stephen asleep. He puts the rifle to his head, but Stephen wakes and pushes it away as it goes off. There is a struggle with Stephen bleeding from a scalp wound as he fights for his life. David twists Stephen's T-shirt to strangle him and as he lies on the floor gasping, David finishes him off with a bullet to the head. During the struggle, David’s glasses have fallen off. He turns on the light and picks them up leaving one of the lenses on the floor and carries them back to his bedroom and places them on his chair.
He goes downstairs where his sister Arawa has heard the shots and is praying for help. She is kneeling as David enters the room and he shoots but misses as he cannot see without his glasses, he shoots again and this time the bullet penetrates Arawa’s forehead, killing her. He goes back upstairs where he hears Laniet gurgling and he shoots her again in the top of the head.
David throws his bloodied clothing into the washing machine and turns it on. David's father Robin is still asleep in the caravan. David puts on a fresh set of clothes and goes out with his dog Casey, to do his Otago Daily Times paper run. Returning home, he goes into the lounge and turns the computer on. He types in the suicide message ostensibly from his father to him saying 'sorry, you are the only one who deserved to stay'. David hides behind the curtain with the rifle and waits for his father to come in to pray, a daily morning routine.
Robin enters the room and kneels on the other side of the curtains. David shoots his father in the head and leaving the rifle beside his body, David dials 111.
[edit] Alternative Theory
If it was accepted that David Bain did not kill his family that June 1994 morning, then who did? There seems only one other possibility - and one favoured at least during the earliest stages of the investigation - that Robin Bain murdered his wife Margaret, then his daughters Laniet and Arawa, then his son Stephen before shooting himself. A message was left on the computer, allegedly from him for David saying, ‘sorry, you are the only one who deserved to stay.’ Theorists point to what they say are compelling facts to substantiate this scenario:
- They say Laniet returned home that weekend to confront her parents with her father’s alleged incest with her over several years. Bain could have been looking at serious criminal charges if this had been true and had it been reported to the authorities, giving him a motive.
- They say Robin's marriage to Margaret was essentially over, with Robin living in a schoolhouse at Taieri Beach during the week and a shabby caravan outside the family home at weekends.
- Not all bloodstains on Robin's clothes were analysed before the trial and supporters say there is the possibility some could have come from other family members. If so, this would have severely damaged the prosecution case and strengthened the evidence against Robin.
- The firearms discharge residue test, which indicates the presence of gunpowder on people who have recently fired a gun, was not carried out on Robin until five hours after the police arrived. This may have made the test inconclusive, as residue can disappear within hours of a shooting. In addition, instead of the tests being done at the scene, they were carried out at the mortuary, after the body had been moved without the hands being protected.
- Robin had six recent injuries to his hands.
- There were 20 empty cartridge shells in Robin’s caravan, indicating that Robin had access to, and had used David's rifle on previous occasions.
Note: Some of these issues were addressed and discounted by police investigating the original investigation. They were also rejected by the Court of Appeal.
[edit] Timeline
- 5:30am David Bain's alarm clock set to activate
- 6:30am The caravan alarm clock is set to activate
- Opposing times of the computer being switched on
- 6:45am David seen at the front gate of 65 Every Street
- 7:00am Neighbour awakened by a barking dog
- 7:09am 111 call made, referred to St John's ambulance
- 15-20 mins later, referred to police (time not validated)
- 7:33am Police arrive at 65 Every Street, no reply - they make their entry
[edit] Trial and appeals
Bain was convicted on five counts of murder by a jury at the Dunedin High Court on 29 May 1995, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a 16 year non-parole period on 21 June 1995.
Bain's supporters have carried out a consistent campaign to have his case reheard. An appeal failed, and a request to appeal to the Privy Council was turned down. The New Zealand Police reviewed their investigation into the Bain family murders and issued a 123-page report in 1997.
Four books were published about David Bain and the murders:
- David and Goliath: the BAIN family murders by Joe Karam ISBN 0-7900-0564-6
- Bain and Beyond by Joe Karam ISBN 0-7900-0747-9
- In the Grip of Evil: The Bain Murders by Trevor Reeves ISBN 0-908562-64-0
- The Mask of Sanity: The Bain Murders by James McNeish ISBN 0-908990-46-4.
On 6 June 2006, the Privy Council agreed to hear Bain's case in the following year.(Radio NZ)(NZ Herald)
This was and remains, one of New Zealand's most complex and controversial murder cases. To this day, there is still debate regarding whether or not David actually killed his family on that winter morning.
