On one side, the Crown contends there was strong circumstantial evidence pointing conclusively to David Bain, not his father Robin, as the murderer, and that Robin did not shoot his wife, two daughters and younger son then commit suicide as had initially been seen as a possibility.
But defence counsel Michael Reed QC described the Crown case as absurd. In an extended opening statement of defence issues, he criticised the police investigation as flawed from the start, saying police jumped to conclusions too quickly and did not collect vital evidence which could have put the situation in a different light.
He accused police of not investigating some matters that clearly should have been looked at, including a possible motive for Robin Bain, namely that he was about to be exposed for committing incest with his younger daughter, Laniet. And he said there was strong evidence Robin Bain was suffering from serious depression at the time.
Mr Reed told the jurors they would see a lot of startling evidence - including forensic evidence - completely contradicting what the Crown said.
For every point the Crown had raised which, it claimed, proved David Bain's guilt, the defence would show a different version and a different result, Mr Reed said.
The conflicting pictures of the case were set out in the High Court at Christchurch on the first day of 36-year-old David Cullen Bain's retrial for the murders of his parents and three siblings.
Bain denies murdering Robin Irving Bain (50), Margaret Arawa Cullen-Bain (50), Arawa Mary Cullen-Bain (19), Laniet Margaret Cullen-Bain (18) and Stephen Robin Cullen-Bain (14) on June 20, 1994. They were fatally shot in their Every St home in Andersons Bay, Dunedin.
Defence lawyers in the case are Mr Reed QC, of Auckland, Helen Cull QC, and Paul Morten, both of Wellington, and Matthew Karam, son of long-time Bain campaigner Joe Karam.
Prosecuting counsel are Kieran Raftery of Auckland, Cameron Mander, of Wellington, and Dunedin Crown solicitor Robin Bates, who opened the case for the Crown yesterday.
The trial, before Justice Panckhurst and a jury of seven women and five men, is expected to take about 12 weeks.
In his detailed summary of the Crown case, Mr Bates took the jury through the events of Monday, June 20, 1994 when police rushed to the Every St house after a 111 call from Bain saying his father was dead.
Police had to force their way inside the house where they found Bain, hysterical, on the the floor of his bedroom, wailing: "They are all dead, they are all dead".
Ambulance staff were allowed in to check Bain, who appeared to lose consciousness or be having a fit, something some of the people tending him thought did not seem genuine.
As the officers checked other rooms in the house, they found Bain's father in the lounge across the hallway from David's room. He had been shot and there was a .22 rifle beside him. A computer found running in an alcove off the lounge had a message on the screen saying "Sorry, you are the only one who deserved to stay".
Stephen Bain, whose body was found in his bedroom behind his mother's room, had been shot twice, the initial scalp wound resulting in considerable bleeding, Mr Bates said. It was clear there had been a significant physical struggle.
The room was in disarray and there was a great deal of blood. The second shot was the fatal one and the youth also appeared to have been partially strangled with his own T-shirt.
Laniet had been shot three times in the head. One shot through the jaw would not have been fatal, but either of the other two shots would have killed her.
Margaret Bain had been shot once in the head as she lay sleeping and Arawa, whose room was downstairs, was also killed by one bullet to the head. A second shot appeared to have missed.
The bullet which killed Robin Bain had entered his head on the front left and travelled on a relatively level plane through his brain to the back right portion of the skull.
Mr Bates said the .22 semi-automatic rifle found beside the body was fitted with a silencer.
Although an attempt had been made to make it appear Robin Bain had committed suicide, the evidence would show clearly that was not the case, Mr Bates said, telling the jurors there was a considerable body of circumstantial evidence pointing to David Bain as the killer of all five members of his family.
Evidence linking David Bain to the various crime scenes were Stephen's blood on the accused's clothing, the accused's bloodied gloves in Stephen's room, one lens from a broken pair of glasses the Crown says the accused was wearing being found in Stephen's room, while the frame and other lens were in the accused's bedroom and scratches and gouge-marks on the accused which were consistent with the struggle or fight the Crown says took place in Stephen's room.
In the case of Laniet, there was the evidence of the accused that he heard her gurgling.
And there was evidence in the bathroom/laundry area consistent with the accused having tried to destroy evidence by washing a blood-stained green jersey the Crown said he had been wearing. A bloody palm-print from the accused was found on the side of the washing machine.
Bain owned the rifle, his fingerprints were on it and a key the accused said only he knew about was used to unlock the rifle's trigger-lock.
The Crown also says the accused was linked to the murders by trying to use his paper run as an alibi and by using the computer to write a message.
Mr Bates said the jury would also hear evidence about the accused's unusual behaviour, before and after the murders. He spoke to a friend about premonitions, that he had a feeling something horrible was going to happen and when asked about a 20-minute gap from the time he said he got home to when he made the 111 call, Bain said he had been going into trances or "spacing out" recently.
On the aspect of a lack of evidence to show Robin Bain had shot himself after killing the other members of the family, Mr Bates pointed to a 10-shot magazine being found on its edge near Mr Bain's hand as he lay dead on the lounge floor. His fingerprints were not on the rifle, he had a full bladder which, together with other matters, suggested a normality of routine on the morning of the murders.
The position of the bullet in his head was unusual, given Robin Bain was right-handed, his clothing had no blood of significance on it and he had no fresh injuries as would have been expected had he been in a struggle with Stephen.
Stephen Bain's blood was on the curtains between the lounge and the alcove where the computer was and there was an ejected cartridge was in the alcove.
Evidence from pathologists would be the wound was not a contact wound but a near to intermediate range wound, both of which were inconsistent with suicide.
Evidence in the trial will begin on Monday, when the first of about 150 Crown witnesses will be called.
