High cost of the Bain fight

For ex-All Black Joe Karam the odds must have seemed somewhat more threatening than a rugby field.

On the field, where Karam first made a name for himself, the man with the ball only has 15 players out to get him.

But Karam has portrayed his long fight to free David Bain as him against the police and crown monolith.

He even entitled one of his three books, David and Goliath.

"Since we won leave to appeal to the Privy Council in 2006, I have been full time," Karam said during a break towards the end of David Bain's three-month retrial.

"It has been me versus 25 detectives."

He has been everywhere during the trial, organising and overseeing, passing notes, even taking his turn on the defence team's coffee run to Coffeesmiths across the road from the Court House.

The Bain campaign gained traction when Karam got involved 11 years ago, but it has meant taking on a huge burden for the businessman.

That has included the successful defence of a defamation action taken against him by a police officer.

He has said that involved 2½ years of "working night and day" to prepare David Bain's defence.

He has earlier put the personal cost – in terms of actual costs, lost earnings and lost opportunities – at between $3 million and $5 million.

That doesn't include the resources that he must have poured into the running of one of the most extraordinary and perplexing trials that New Zealand has ever seen.

-NZPA