Bain could face more court cases

BY MIKE HOULAHAN

Last updated 05:00 08/06/2009

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David Bain's lawyers could be spending a lot more time in court.

Yesterday, Chief Coroner Neil MacLean said a coronial inquest into the Bain family deaths was a possibility, while the Bain legal team did not rule out court action over the Bain inheritance.

On Friday, David Bain was acquitted of the 1994 murders of his parents, Robin and Margaret, and siblings Arawa, Laniet and Stephen.

The Crown had argued David was the killer, while Bain's lawyers contended Robin was to blame for the killings and had then committed suicide.

The verdicts now placed the accuracy of the Bain family's death certificates in question, the coroner said.

"It's a bit speculative, but one of the thrusts of the defence in this latest trial was that Robin Bain wasn't shot by another person but actually committed suicide," he said.

"Theoretically, that then raises the possibility that that might need to be tidied up (with a new death certificate, with a new cause of death)."

Equally, a coronial inquest could possibly find Robin Bain was not likely to have committed suicide, the coroner said.

"Sometimes what happened doesn't actually come out of a criminal trial.

"All you get is an answer from a jury, without reason, which simply says we find that the Crown hasn't proven that X deliberately killed Y; that hasn't been established beyond reasonable doubt.

"Often then you say, `do we really know what happened?' `What did happen?' The answer is the trial doesn't tell you."

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The coroner said he would discuss the matter with former Dunedin coroner Jim Conradson and current Dunedin Coroner David Crerar to assess the death certificates, and whether an inquest was needed.

"No-one needs to ask for an inquest: a coroner basically makes his or her own decision as to whether there needs to be an inquest or not," the coroner said.

"I need to find out what, if anything, happened back when the original convictions came through."

After establishing the facts, the three coroners would then decide whether further action was necessary.

There is no time limit on coroner's inquests.

The chief coroner said while some people might regard a coroner's inquest in the Bain case as a book-keeping exercise, there was also a view that official records should be as accurate as possible.

"The other side is that this thing has been through so many court hearings and so much evidence, at a personal human level there is a case for saying `is it best left alone?"'

David Bain's lawyer, Michael Reed, QC, said a coronial inquest "seems an awful lot of further waste of money".

If a hearing was held, Reed was confident Bain would again be found not to have had any involvement in the deaths.

"The evidence clearly shows that it was the father, the main important evidence.

"You would have to look at the evidence of the foreign experts proving it was suicide as well."

The Bain family owned their house on Every St in Dunedin, which was burnt down soon after the killings.

They also owned a section in Whangarei and another in Bundaberg.

They had about $60,000 invested with some friends and a substantial amount in an overseas bank account.

Reed hoped David Bain's extended family who had inherited those assets would now give them to David rather than have the issue taken to court.

"They gave evidence against David in the trial of course, and then sat in the gallery and watched the trial," Reed said.

"I would hope they would hand it all back to him.

"If you turned the clock back those years they would never have received that money.

"I would have thought that as they were family members, they would be pleased to give the money back.

"After all, it was quite a lot of money in 1994."

The case may also be considered by a QC, if Bain decides to seek compensation from the Crown for wrongful imprisonment.

For that to succeed, the QC would need to be convinced David Bain was innocent, and the Government would then have to approve a damages payment.

Last week, Justice Minister Simon Power said the grounds for awarding compensation were narrow, but the Bain case would be considered on its merits if an application was made.

- © Fairfax NZ News