Bain trial told of rift in the family

Bain family members were seen doing repairs on their house in Every Street, Dunedin, on the weekend of the shooting in which five of them were killed.

A neighbour told David Cullen Bain's trial of seeing three of them working on the house on the Saturday, two days before the bodies were discovered.

Neighbour Wayne Marsh said the run-down house was an issue because the father, Robin Bain, did not want to spend any money on it, while his wife Margaret wanted it demolished and a new house built.

He referred to a rift in the family because there was no money to build a new house.

He saw Robin and David Bain, and 14-year-old Stephen, working on repairing spouting around the house on the Saturday, two days before the killings in June 1994.

It was the last time he saw them. He said he had seen and heard nothing at the time of the killings.

David Bain faces charges of murdering five members of his family. The defence contends that his father Robin carried out the murders and then shot himself.

During his cross-examination of retired Detective Senior Sergeant James Doyle, lead defence counsel Michael Reed QC asked about a psychologist's report on Robin Bain which had not been followed up.

A school psychologist described him as looking terrible, haggard, grey, depressed and much older than his age.

Mr Reed told the court that the bloody footprints through the house had been photographed but the photographs had not come out, so the crown now only had the measurements that were taken.

Mr Reed put to him that what was under the fingerprints found on the rifle had never been tested, but a recent test done on a splash beside the fingerprints had shown that it was not human blood.

Mr Reed also said the jury had been told at the first trial that the glasses found were David Bain's and a lens from them was found in his brother Stephen's room, even though an optometrist wanted to change his statement before trial to say that they were glasses of the mother, Margaret Bain.

The optometrist had seen photographs and they were not David's glasses.

The photograph used in the first trial to say where the lens was found was actually later found to show a reflection, and the notebook entry recorded the lens in a different place.

Family albums had gone missing or been destroyed. They may have shown who was the owner of the green jersey that the police say the killer was wearing. David Bain said it belonged to his father.

Mr Reed contended that new evidence would show that it was impossible that Robin Bain was kneeling and praying when David allegedly shot him from behind a curtained alcove in the same room.

He also asked about police inquiries about the mobile phone used by Laniet, David Bain's sister who was among those killed. The police went to Telecom for phone records and were told that they were not available, but were later told that they would cost $3000 to access. This was not followed up.

In answer to questions by crown prosecutor Kieran Raftery, Mr Doyle said Robin Bain's fingernail scrapings and a smear slide with traces of blood had been returned to police from the ESR. When items were returned after examination, it meant they were not needed for more testing.

The trial was told yesterday about samples being destroyed a year after the first trial.

Mr Doyle was shown two statements from a neighbour, which had been referred to in evidence yesterday. In both statements she referred to seeing the paperboy - David Bain - outside the house at 6.45am.

The defence is pointing to the timing as crucial for potentially ruling out David Bain as being the person who turned on the family computer and left a message on the screen.

- NZPA