A walkman with a tape of rock band Queen, a large piece of cardboard with five red circles and boxes of .22 ammunition were some of the items police officers found in David Bain's bedroom after five of his family were shot in their Dunedin home.
In evidence on the eighth day of 36-year-old Bain's retrial on five charges of murder, Detective Jenepher Glover told the High Court at Christchurch she saw a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles with no lenses on a chair in the room, and a black vinyl glasses case and one dusty looking lens nearby.
The detective was part of the murder inquiry team making a minute examination of the Bains' Every St home after the bodies of 58-year-old Robin Bain, his wife Margaret Cullen-Bain (50) and three of their children, Arawa (19), Laniet (18) and Stephen (14), were found dead of gunshot wounds on June 20, 1994.
David Bain, the sole survivor, denies committing the murders.
He said he returned from his paper round to find his parents, two sisters and younger brother dead.
He was found guilty by a jury in 1995 and served 12 years of a 16-year non-parole term before being granted a new trial ordered by the Privy Council just over two years ago.
The hearing of the retrial before Justice Graham Panckhurst and a jury of seven men and five women is expected to take about 12 weeks.
Crown counsel in the case are Kieran Raftery, of Auckland, Cameron Mander, of Wellington, and Dunedin Crown solicitor Robin Bates.
Bain is represented by Michael Reed QC, of Auckland, Helen Cull QC and Paul Morten, of Wellington, and Matthew Karam, son of long-time Bain campaigner, Joe Karam.
Det Glover was one of several police officers, or former police officers, to give evidence yesterday about what they saw in various rooms at the Bain family's home at 65 Every St, Dunedin.
She was involved with then detective Kevin Anderson in examining Bain's bedroom.
In a wardrobe behind Bain's bedroom door, she saw a large amount of live .22 calibre ammunition and many boxes of subsonic and supersonic ammunition.
She also saw a large piece of cardboard with five red circular marks in another wardrobe in the room.
On Bain's bed was a Sony Walkman containing what appeared to be a home-recorded tape of Queen.
Former police officer Kevin Anderson, then a detective, told the court he had gone into the house with an ambulance officer while Bain was still in his bedroom.
There was a police radio on the floor and every time there was talking, Bain would look towards the radio.
He brought the matter to the attention of a police officer in the room with Bain and the radio was turned down.
Mr Anderson was put in charge of the room where the father, Robin Bain, was lying, and conducted a scene search.
He told the court in detail where everything was in the room, and spoke of blood on the curtain between this room and the alcove where the computer was.
He made measurements of the rifle and where it was in the room.
He said there was a live shell by the rifle handgrip.
A spent shell was found in the computer alcove and the curtain with the blood spots was removed.
And former detective sergeant Milton Weir, the officer in charge of the Every St scene, earlier described walking through the hallway with Mr Anderson, looking into each room and noting the bodies where they lay.
The two of them also went downstairs and saw the body of Arawa Bain in her bedroom off the kitchen, Mr Weir said.
After arranging for David Bain to be removed from the house on a carry chair, he had the police doctor, Tom Pryde, check each of the bodies, taking care none was disturbed.
The scenes were then videoed and photographed by police photographer Trevor Gardener.
The lighting inside the house was very poor, even though it was late morning, but Mr Gardener's video camera operated with a light.
Once Mr Gardener had finished, Mr Weir arranged for a roll of clear plastic to be brought so the floor could be covered throughout the house.
And he asked staff to organise lighting from the Fire Service because of the difficulty of examining the inside of the house, which was very dark.
The outside of the building was in a a state of disrepair, the guttering was in very poor condition.
And the interior was very cluttered, which created problems for searching.
"It had a bad smell," Mr Weir said.
Many of the staff wore dust masks during the search and some put eucalyptus drops in their masks to hide the smell.
He noticed blood on some of the doorways and was with ESR scientist Peter Hentschel when he carried out luminol testing.
In Stephen's room, there were patterns of obvious blood stains on the floor and the top of his bed cover had large amounts of bloodstaining.
At the foot of Margaret Cullen-Bain's bed, luminol testing revealed the print of a right foot wearing a sock.
Other prints, measuring 28cm, were found in the hallway heading in to Laniet's bedroom.
Some of the marking revealed by the luminol were "confused" because of apparent movement in and out of the room.
There were bloodstains on the door frame between Stephen Bain's room and his mother's, on the doorway from Margaret Cullen-Bain's bedroom out to the hallway and on a light switch in Laniet's room.
And downstairs, there was bloodstaining on a post in the kitchen, on the edge of a glass-fronted cabinet by the passageway through to Arawa's bedroom and on the doorway and net curtain at the entrance to her room.
Pictures were taken of the stains tested but it was hard to recognise where the pictures were taken, Mr Weir said.
Because Mr Weir and the other officers will be giving evidence more than once, the defence will not cross-examine them until later in the hearing. - Additional reporting NZPA
