March 16, 2009

Trial hears new evidence on Bain's glasses

Bain Trial, Day 6 update. By Anne Clarkson

A police officer has admitted ? in a new statement signed today ? that he moved the spectacles found on a chair in David Cullen Bain?s bedroom on the morning when five Bain family members were found dead.

Constable Terry Van Turnhout gave his evidence on the sixth day of Bain?s retrial in the High Court at Christchurch before Justice Graham Panckhurst and a jury.

The statement about the spectacles was part of a new brief of evidence which he was questioned about for the first time today.

He said he had been sent into Bain?s bedroom to ?observe, note, and record any of his words?.

Bain was pale and lying down, and Constable Van Turnhout thought he was in shock.

At 8.15am ? about 45min after the police arrived at the crime scene ? Bain said: ?I?ve got to get up. I go to the university. I study music. I sing.?

He noted several loose rounds of .22 calibre ammunition on the floor, an ammunition belt, and a trigger lock with the key in it.

Across the hall, he saw the body of a man, with a .22 rifle with attached silencer.

He said Bain repeatedly tried to get up, but kept lying down again.

He asked for his glasses which were on a chair. Constable Van Turnhout picked them up but then realised he was in a crime scene and replaced them. He told Bain they would get his glasses later. The glasses had no lenses in the frame, but one lens was on the chair.

Later in the morning, another officer asked if anything had been touched in the room, and Constable Van Turnhout did not say that he had touched the glasses. ?I had no idea that at a later date they would be significant. I made an error of judgment,? he told the court.

When the trial resumes on Tuesday, a written statement given by Bain on the day of the killings will be read to the court.