'Dying, dying, everyone dying'

Bain supporter Joe Karam appears fatigued as he listens to evidence on the 37th day of the case. Pool Photo

His fists clenched and eyes squeezed shut, David Bain spoke about "black hands" taking away his family, and everyone dying just like in Schindler's List, the High Court has heard.

An aunt and uncle Bain stayed with after the death of his family described yesterday how he went into a state where his body was tense and his voice changed, and he kept repeating the same jumbled phrases.

The sudden change came after Bain read a newspaper article, and complained that police had lied to him, because some of his family were awake when killed and the killer "had to look them in the eye and shoot them".

Bain, 37, is on trial for murdering his parents and three siblings in their Dunedin home on the morning of June 20, 1994. He says his father, Robin, 58, shot the family then turned the rifle on himself.

The prosecution is in the closing stages of its case, and the defence yesterday foreshadowed a witness who will say Bain's mother, Margaret, 50, feared Robin was so depressed he would get a gun and shoot the family.

The court heard that Margaret was proud of her children, but had been forced at one stage to remind Bain he was not the father, and it was not his place to tell his siblings what to do.

Bob and Jan Clark took Bain into their home on the day of the killings.

That night, Mr Clark said he was asked to go and identify the bodies of the Bain family at the morgue, and he said Bain offered to go with him.

Four days later, police asked Mr Clark to take Bain to the police station, and they spoke in the car on the way.

"I distinctly remember [Bain] saying that 'I'll be glad when this is all sorted out ... I can live my life'."

Mrs Clark said Bain insisted on reading the Otago Daily Times two days after the killings to see what it said about him.

"He said, 'They lied to me, they weren't asleep. They knew they were going to die. He had to look them in the eye and shoot them," Mrs Clark said.

He then clenched his fists, squeezed his eyes closed tightly, and his whole body seemed to become tense.

"He started to speak in a really slow, deliberate way. His words were almost as though they were being dragged out of him. He started saying 'black hands', and that they were taking him away, 'black hands' ... and just repeated this over and over."

Bain said he should have run home faster from his paper round.

"And I said to David, "No, David. It's not your fault. You couldn't have done anything.' And then he continued 'black hands, that they're dying ... [black hands] taking them away."

"I said to him, 'David, did they try to take you away too?' and he said, 'No, just the family'. And then he said, 'It's just like Schindler's List', and then he went back to saying 'black hands, taking them away, dying, dying, everyone dying'."

A previous witness has told how Bain cried while watching Schindler's List.

Mrs Clark said she asked Bain if he saw his family die, and he replied, "No".

She also recalled Bain mention that his glasses were being repaired after he broke them four days before the deaths, and he was using an old pair of his mother's in the meantime.

This evidence is considered important because an optometrist has stated that a damaged pair of spectacle frames found in Bain's bedroom belonged to Margaret, and a lens fitting these frames was found in the bedroom of Bain's brother, Stephen, after a violent struggle.

The prosecution says the lens fell from the glasses Bain was wearing during the struggle, but the defence says the lens was planted in the room by a detective. The case continues.

The case so far

* The High Court murder retrial of David Bain today enters its 38th day.

* The prosecution is expected to introduce the last of its 135 witnesses today or tomorrow.

* The defence will then open its case, in which it plans to call between 40 and 60 witnesses.