Robin Bain's pupils wrote murder stories, court told

David Bain's defence lawyers have indicated he is unlikely to give evidence. Photo / Pool

Children in Robin Bain's class wrote stories about characters who killed police and their families, a court heard today.

One story read out by the defence included the character of a boy who shot 100 cops before shooting his mother and father.

The story, by a nine year-old, included the words: "He shot his Mum, it was fun. He shot his Dad, it was funnier".

Another story was about a girl whose doll kills her mother, father, sister and brother.

A psychologist and friend of Mr Bain told the court that the stories were particularly disturbing given that some of the children had witnessed the massacre at Aramoana.

David Bain, 37, denies murdering his parents and three siblings in their Dunedin family home on June 20, 1994. His defence team say his father Robin, 58, shot his family before turning the rifle on himself.

Bain's defence team began calling their first witnesses in David Bain's retrial at the High Court in Christchurch today.

Among them was a friend of Margaret and Robin Bain during their student days at Dunedin teachers college.

Cyril Wilden later became a psychologist and visited the school after the Bain family killings.

He said some of the students at Mr Bain's school had witnessed the Aramoana massacre when David Gray, 33, went on a shooting spree in 1990 and killed 13 people in the town and then himself.

Mr Wilden said parents and Board of Trustee members were "concerned" about the stories.

David Bain's lawyer, Michael Reed QC, asked Mr Wilden what he thought about a warning that appeared to "adult readers" regarding the content of the newsletter where the stories appeared less than a week before the Bain family murders.

"I found it quite disturbing that a person or principal of a school would put that at the top of a newsletter, just inappropriate as far as I'm concerned," Mr Wilden said.

He said it was the principal of a school who is responsible for content that is sent out in a school newsletter.

Mr Wilden said Robin Bain looked gaunt and had some "deep-seated emotional problems" in the year before the killings.

Kevin MacKenzie was president of the Taieri School Association and also visited Taieri Beach School after five of the Bain family members were found dead in their Dunedin home.

He said the stories written by Robin Bain's pupils were "disturbing".

"The whole thing is weird and disturbing," Mr MacKenzie said.

"As you go through the story, it is one disturbing phrase after another," he said.

Mr MacKenzie was asked by David Bain's lawyer Michael Reed, QC, if he would have published the stories as an experienced school principal.

"Absolutely not. I would've taken quite drastic action with the child who had written it," Mr MacKenzie said.

He said children would write stories and were motivated by their teacher through teaching practices.

He said when he first met Robin, he was "quite bright and chatty".

"He would consistently berate the rest of us for not being up to speed with computers and he was absolutely right," Mr MacKenzie said.

However, Mr MacKenzie said Robin grew depressed because he had been turned down from several jobs he had applied for.

"He seemed quite dishevelled; hair was all over the place," he said, adding that Robin "wasn't dressing like a professional."

Robyn Davidson was a principal at Brighton school, 20km from Taieri Beach School where Robin taught, and first met Mr Bain in 1968.

She told the court she would have contacted parents about the violent stories, not publish them.

Ms Davidson said the stories were not suitable for children and had been altered by an adult.

She said the writing had been changed and that could be seen in some of the sentence structures and the quality of grammar.

"As a parent myself, I would have been furious," Ms Davidson said.

She also visited the school after the Bain family killings and said there was mail "on the tables, on chairs, underneath chairs. There was stuff stacked in corners. It was unbelievable".

Ms Davidson said there was mail from the Ministry of Education unopened.

She said the classroom was also a mess and did not have much of the children's work on the wall.

"The classroom was not conducive to learning," Ms Davidson said.

Maryanne Pease carried out post-traumatic event counselling at Taieri Beach School after the Bain family killings.

Ms Pease now works with autistic children in Australia.

She said the disturbing stories "clearly showed a lack of systems in place" at Robin Bain's school.

She said she was concerned that other children might read them and that the child authors may be judged by parents in the community.

Ms Pease said the responsibility for publishing the stories ultimately rests with the principal.

Robin Bain described as mentor

The defence's first witness was Malin Stone, who took over from Robin Bain as headmaster at Taieri Beach School in 1994.

He told the court Robin was a mentor to him and at the cutting edge of computer aided teaching in Otago.

"He was streets ahead of anyone else I know, that's why I latched on to him," Mr Stone said.

Mr Stone described Robin as motivated, interesting and "laid back".

He told the court he was teaching at Berwick School, about 20km from Taieri Beach School, in the early nineties.

He said he and Robin took their classes on a shared school camp in April, 1994, just two months before the killings.

Mr Stone said on the first day of camp, "Robin was okay but I was surprised he didn't do a lot to help."

He said Robin then disappeared into his cabin saying that he didn't feel well and "did absolutely nothing to help".

"He seemed to have lost a lot of interest in schooling and life," Mr Stone said.

He said Robin had applied for other jobs outside of Taieri Beach School but did not get them and felt discouraged.

Mr Stone said he also attended a teacher's training college course with Robin, during which Robin "verbally abuses the lecturer".

"His voice was raised and you could see it in his face, the anger in his face, you know? when somebody goes red," Mr Stone said.

Mr Stone said he found no evidence of planning or programming after taking over from Mr Bain.

"There was no order to anything. The teacher's table, the classroom desks were all a mess. The resource materials were all chaotic. In general, everything was dishevelled," Mr Stone said.