Former ESR scientist Peter Hentschel has come under continued criticism from defence counsel in the David Bain retrial today for inadequate record-taking when he took blood samples from a rifle used in the killing of five members of the Bain family in 1994.
Michael Reed QC said scientists in the United Kingdom were "shocked" at Mr Hentschel's poor recording of his examination of items at the murder scene and the fact that samples of carpet where bloody sock-prints said to have been made by the killer were not retained for further luminol testing.
Mr Reed asked Mr Hentschel to explain why there was blood smearing between the fingerprints when other ESR scientists tested the .22 rifle in 1997 when the witness said he saw none in 1994 at the time a police fingerprint expert pointed the prints out to him.
Mr Hentschel said he had no idea why there would be smearing in 1997 when there had been none at the time he examined the rifle.
He said he was not suggesting it had been contaminated but he believed it had been handled a lot in the intervening years.
Mr Hentschel is the first of a group of ESR witnesses the Crown is calling in the retrial of 37-year-old David Bain for the murder of his parents and three siblings in their Every ST home on June 20, 1994.
Bain denies being the killer, the defence contending the father, Robin Bain, shot his wife and three children then turned the gun on himself.
Throughout his intensive cross-examination during the past day, Mr Reed has pointed the finger at Mr Hentschel for failing to ensure samples were kept for testing which could have exonerated David Bain and implicated Robin and for failing to maintain a high standard of record-keeping which would be expected of a responsoble scientist.
