David Bain trial: I should have spoken up over error, says policeman

David Bain denies killing five members of his family. Photo / Pool

The police officer put in charge of monitoring David Bain on the morning five of his family members were found dead in their home said he has not previously given evidence about moving a key exhibit until today because he was "worried about being criticised".

Terry Van Turnhout was a constable with Dunedin police and was told to record anything that David Bain said or did.

He told the Christchurch High Court today that Bain had asked for his glasses as he lay in a foetal position in his bedroom and ambulance officers monitored his heart beat and oxygen intake.

Mr Van Turnhout, who has since left the police, told the court that after Bain made the request, he picked up a glasses frame on a chair in Bain's bedroom but "immediately thought it was in a crime scene" and "put them back down".

He told the court that the frames had no lenses and one lens was on the chair.

But later on when he was asked by the officer in charge of the scene if anything had been touched in the room, Mr Van Turnhout said only a pillow which ambulance officers had used to comfort Bain had been moved.

He said he hadn't said anything about touching the glasses because he "did not want to be criticised".

Police indicated last week that a lens from the glasses was found in the bedroom of Stephen Bain where a struggle had taken place.

"I was worried that I had picked them up. I didn't know what their significance was or would be.

"I had no idea that at a later date they would become significant. I was worried about being criticised for having done so. I made an error of judgement," Mr Van Turnhout told the court.

Under cross-examination by David Bain's lawyer Paul Morten, Mr Van Turnhout confirmed that he did not include evidence about having touched the glasses frame when he gave a statement to police, evidence at a depositions hearing, evidence at the first trial, a statement to the Police Complaints Authority or an affiavit to the Court of Appeal.

He said he was not asked at previous hearings if he had touched the glasses and they were not "an issue" until 1997 and the publication of Bain supporter Joe Karam's book.

However under re-examination by Crown prosecutor Cameron Mander, Mr Turnhout said apart from picking up the glasses, there was nothing different about the evidence he had given today, compared with the previous trial.

He confirmed that he was previously asked if he saw a lens on the chair and under oath, he had answered that he had. Mr Van Turnhout also confirmed that was his evidence today.