Bain: Laniet's head 'covered before shooting'

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LATEST: The gunman who shot Laniet Bain put a thick article like a pillow or cushion over her head before shooting her in the top of her head, a defence expert has told the Bain trial.

The Crown alleges the gunman was Laniet's brother David, 37, who is charged with the murder of his parents and three siblings on 20 June, 1994. The defence contends the culprit was David's father Robin who, it says, shot his family and then himself. No such article was found by police in the Bain house.

Peter Ross, a forensic scientist from the Victorian Police Forensic Science Department, told the High Court in Christchurch a bullet fragment found on Laniet's pillow had a very clear fabric impression which contained fibres of cotton and another fragment was also impregnated with cotton fibres. The same could be seen with bullet fragments recovered from Laniet's brain.

That suggested to him that something was placed between the muzzle of the rifle and the top of Laniet's head where the bullet caused a large hole. The material had a contact surface of cotton fabric and was substantial, perhaps a cushion or an upholstered object, he said.

Two bullet fragments found outside Laniet's body could have resulted from impact with the cotton object or impact with Laniet's skull.

Ross is the defence's 53rd and last witness.

If a fragment had been pushed out of her skull by another shot it would be expected to contain brain material and neither of the outside fragments had biological material on them, he said.

Ross said he believed the first shot to Laniet's head was to the top of her head and must have delivered when she was upright in the bed and with the top of her head facing the shooter. She was then shot above her ear and after the cheek shot slumped back onto her pillow and did not move again. A bullet fragment found under Laniet must have come from the bullet which was fired at the top of her head, he said.

His hypothesis on the order of shots to Laniet's head supports the defence contention Laniet was already dead when David heard her gurgling.

Ross said early in his career he was called to a hospital to take a sample from a suicide victim. She had been dead only for an hour and as his back was turned she groaned in an exhalation of breath. He shot out of the room to make sure doctors were sure she was dead.

In cross-examination by Cameron Mander for the Crown, he said he was concerned the suicide victim might need medical assistance when he heard the groan.

He agreed a handkerchief or a piece of cloth would not have been enough to cause the distortion he had seen to the bullet fragments from the top of the head shot.

The intermediary fabric object was more likely to have been close to Laniet's head, he said, and may have mopped up blood spurting from the wound.

Ross said he not seen anything from the scene which could have been used as the intermediary object.

"It could have been missed but it would have been incredible,'' he said.

He said he had not seen any of the defence tests with intermediary targets which demonstrated the difficulty of reproducing the size of the wound in Laniet's head.

He saw no evidence of the top of the head wound being the result of the rifle being held hard against her head.

- © Fairfax NZ News