Bain not guilty

BY MARTIN VAN BEYNEN

Last updated 16:31 05/06/2009

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Issues the Bain jury will face

Bain's fate in Jury's hands

JURY OUT: David Bain in the High Court at Christchurch today for the first full day of jury deliberations.

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BREAKING NEWS: The jury in the Bain trial has found David Bain not guilty on all five charges of murder.

After deliberating for only five hours and 50 minutes the jury indicated it was ready with its verdicts.

Court staff are now rounding up the legal teams and other personnel.

About 40-50 media are gathered to wait for the verdict, along with a group of David Bain supporters and members of the public.

David Bain, 37, is charged with murdering his family on 20 June, 1994 in Dunedin. The defence argues the killer was actually his father Robin, 58. The jury began it 58th day of the trial today and has heard 3700 pages of evidence from 180 witnesses.

The court resumed at 9am this morning to answer two jury questions about the meaning of reasonable doubt.

Justice Graham Panckhurst said there were no rules as such but reasonable doubt meant the jury had to be sure David was the killer. It was not enough to say he was likely or probably guilty.

On the other hand nothing could be proved to a degree of absolute certainty.

A reasonable doubt was an honest and reasonable uncertainty. If, after an impartial consideration, the jury was sure David was the killer, they had to return a verdict of guilty. If they were not sure they had to acquit the accused, the judge said.

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