Court hears how Bain 'zoned out'

David Bain spoke about foreseeing something horrible before his family were killed, and may have "zoned out" over an important period he could not account for, a court has heard.

A former girlfriend and a friend of Bain's yesterday gave evidence about how he acted before and after the deaths of his parents and three siblings on June 20, 1994.

The High Court at Christchurch heard how Bain felt he had no real friends and that anybody he loved ended up getting hurt.

Bain, 37, is on trial for murdering his family in their Dunedin home.

The defence says that his father, Robin, 58, shot the rest of the family before turning the rifle on himself.

Bain's girlfriend at the time of the murders said she met him after the deaths, and he told her how he had returned home to find his parents dead.

Bain told her: "If it was my father I could never forgive him, and if I ... " before she cut him off and said: "David, you could never have done that."

The girlfriend said Bain told her there had been tension in the house before the deaths, and he and his father had had an argument over a chainsaw. Bain seemed particularly upset that his brother, Stephen, 14, had fought his killer. He referred to Stephen being "so much stronger than me".

On June 11, 1994, Bain and his girlfriend went to a concert together, and the girlfriend said that towards the end Bain became very still and started staring straight ahead. When everyone clapped, Bain did not react, and she "elbowed" him and nothing happened.

He "sort of came to" when she kept prodding him.

Bain later told her this might have happened again in the 25-minute gap between his arrival home from his paper round and calling emergency services. He had been unable to account for this period when asked by police.

The friend said Bain mentioned how he sometimes had premonitions. Six days before the deaths, Bain told her he thought something horrible was going to happen.

"I asked him what he meant, and was it anything to do with [his girlfriend], and he said, 'I don't know."'

Questioned by defence lawyer, Michael Reed, QC, the friend agreed she felt this horrible premonition had related to Bain's girlfriend.

The friend said when she asked Bain, after the deaths, if he had meant his family, Bain did not answer and became very upset and dropped to his knees, before he had a "good old yell".

The friend said Bain showed her scratches over his left side, which he felt might have got there when he zoned out.

The prosecution says Bain got the scratches in a struggle with Stephen, but the defence says the scratches were not even on Bain's body until after the killings.

David Bain trial: Updates at nzherald.co.nz