Robin Irving Bain and Margaret Arawa Cullen were married in 1969 in Dunedin, New Zealand. They had 4 children: David (born 1972), Arawa (born 1974), Laniet (born 1976) and Stephen (born 1980). In 1974, they moved to Papua New Guinea, where Robin worked as a missionary teacher. The family returned to New Zealand in 1988. 3 years after his return, Robin became the principal of Taieri Beach School, a 2 teacher school about 50 kilometres down the coast from Dunedin.
In June 1994, the family lived at 65 Every Street, Andersons Bay, Dunedin. The house was old and 'semi derelict'. At this time Robin and Margaret were estranged. Robin was initially sleeping in the back of his van at Taueri, but more recently in the schoolhouse 3 nights a week. He returned to the family home at weekends but slept in a caravan in the back garden.
David was studying music and classics at Otago University and had a part time job delivering morning newspapers. Arawa was attending a teachers' training college and Stephen was at high School. Laniet had a part time job in Dunedin and lived away from home, but had returned to the family residence on the Sunday evening of 19th June to attend a family meeting.
On the morning of 20th June 1994, David called the 111 emergency service number at 07:09am in a distressed state and told the operator: "They're all dead, they're all dead."
When the police arrived they found 5 members of the Bain family had been shot to death - Robin (58), his wife Margaret (50), their daughters Arawa (19) and Laniet (18), and their son Stephen (14). There was evidence of a violet struggle involving Stephen, who was partly strangled as well as shot. A message was found typed on a computer that said "sorry, you are the only one who deserved to stay". 4 days later, David, aged 22, was charged with 5 counts of murder.
David's first trial lasted 3 weeks and took place at Dunedin High Court in May 1995. The Crown put forward that David shot to death his mother, 2 sisters and brother in undetermined order before going on his morning paper run. On his return he waited for his father to come in from the caravan and go into the lounge to pray and then shot him from behind the computer alcove curtain, typed the message on the computer, arranged the scene to make it look like a suicide, and called 111. The defence submitted that while David was out on his paper round, Robin killed the other family members, typed the message and shot himself.
David testified that after his morning paper run he entered the house without turning on the lights, and went downstairs to the bathroom where he washed his hands, which were covered with black newsprint, and put some clothes in the washing machine. David said that he noticed bullets and the trigger lock of his rile on the floor of his bedroom when he went back upstairs and turned on the light. He found his mother dead in her room, heard Laniet gurgling and found his father dead in the lounge. At 07:09am he rang 111 in great distress.
In his closing address, Crown Prosecutor W J Wright said that David murdered his family to gain his inheritance, which the parents had put aside for the new house. In summing up, Justice Neil Williamson told the jury that the Crown had said "... that these events were so bizarre and abnormal that it was impossible for the human mind to conceive of any logical or reasonable explanation".
Little in the way of motive was presented for Robin. In a formal statement, Dean Cottle told police that Laniet had confided in him that her father had been having an incestuous relationship with her and that she was planning to "blow the whistle" the weekend before she and her family were killed. Dean failed to show up at court when called, and when he did turn up, Justice Williamson found him unreliable as a witness and ruled against admission of his testimony. The defence instead submitted that, "Robin was a proud school teacher who had been rejected by his family and had snapped after months of pressure."
At the conclusion of the trial, David was convicted by the jury on 5 counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a 16 year non-parole period.
Former All Black rugby player Joe Karam felt "something was wrong" with the case and spearheaded a lengthy campaign to have David's convictions overturned. He visited David in prison over 200 times and wrote 4 books about the case. Joe stated in his books that "Davids innocence is the only possible conclusion" and that he was "totally innocent". Joe was subsequently described in some media as a "freedom fighter" and his support helped bring about a retrial in 2009.
The first application was made to the New Zealand Court of Appeal in 1995, principally on whether the trial judge had erred in refusing to admit Dean's testimony. The Court refused to hear the appeal on the grounds that the "Crown case appeared very strong and the defence theory not at all plausible."
In June 1998, David petitioned the Governor General for a pardon, which was then passed on to the Ministry of Justice. In 2000, Justice Minister Phil Goff said the investigation had shown that 'a number of errors' may have occurred in the Crown's case against David.
The case was then referred to the Court of Appeal for a full hearing in 2003. The court heard submissions over 5 days, but was not persuaded that there had been a miscarriage of justice and the appeal was dismissed on 15th December 2003.
In March 2007, David's legal team, including Joe, travelled to London to lay out 9 arguments before the Privy Council as to why his convictions should be quashed. 2 of the 9 points concerned Robin's mental state and possible motive. The other 7 points concerned questions about particular pieces of evidence. The Privy Council said there was considerable doubt that David would have been convicted if evidence discovered post trial had been put to the jury.
The Privy Council concluded that: "In the opinion of the board, the fresh evidence adduced in relation to the 9 points... taken together, compels the conclusion that a substantial miscarriage of justice has actually occurred in this case." The Privy Council quashed David's convictions and ordered a retrial, but noted that he should remain in custody in the meantime.
On 15th May 2007, David was granted bail by the High Court in Christchurch. Justice Fogarty said that under New Zealand law, there was no reason for continued detention and he was bailed to the home of his longtime supporter Joe. Altogether, he served almost 13 years of his life sentence with a minimum 16 year non-parole period.
The retrial took place at the Christchurch High Court, with the jury sworn in on 6th March 2009, and David pleaded not guilty to the 5 murder charges. The defence argued that Robin committed the murders and then committed suicide. The trial lasted about 3 months and the jury took less than a day to find David not guilty on all 5 charges.
Outside court, an emotional David thanked his supporters, particularly Joe. "Without Joe and his solid strength... I wouldn't have made it through this far", David said. Joe said the trial would go down as the "criminal trial of New Zealand's history". Some commentators questioned the behaviour of jurors who hugged David and attended a "victory party" after the verdict. Chris Gallavin, a senior law lecturer at Canterbury University, said, "While this is unusual behaviour, the whole case is an unusual case."
After the retrial, New Zealand's Chief Coroner consulted with the local coroner and others to decide whether to conduct inquests into the deaths, as the verdict implied the death certificates may not be accurate. However no inquests were held; a Law Society spokesman pointed out that even if the coroner's findings disagreed with the retrial verdict, this could not lead to any further legal action against David.
In March 2010, David lodged an application for compensation for wrongful imprisonment. His case fell outside Cabinet rules on compensation, meaning the government was not obliged to pay him anything, but may do so if he was able to establish his innocence on "the balance of probabilities" and was also considered to be the "victim of exceptional circumstances".
Because of the high profile nature of the case, Justice Minister Simon Power chose an overseas judge - retired Canadian Supreme Court Justice Ian Binnie - to examine David's application for compensation. After a year long investigation, Ian concluded in September 2012 that "on the balance of probabilities" David was innocent of the murders in 1994 and should be paid compensation for wrongful conviction and imprisonment". By the time Ian's report was completed, Simon Power had retired from Parliament.
Judith Collins, the new Justice Minister, disagreed with Ian's conclusions and sought feedback from the police, the Solicitor General and former High Court judge Robert Fisher. Robert concluded that Ian had made significant errors of principle and recommended that a new report be undertaken. He acknowledged that a new report could still reach the same conclusion as Ian. Judith agreed and said another report into David's compensation claim would have to be commissioned. Ian took exception to the criticisms of his report, arguing that he had weighed up the totality of the evidence both for and against David. He said the government was clearly "shopping around" for a report that would allow it to dodge paying compensation.
In January 2013, David filed a claim in the High Court seeking a review of Judith's actions, alleging Judith had breached natural justice and the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. In August 2014, Judith resigned and Amy Adams was appointed as the new Justice Minister. The judicial review proceedings against Judith were discontinued in January 2015.
Another report was commissioned and retired Australian Judge Ian Callinan was given the responsibility to draft it. On 2nd August 2016, Amy formally announced that Ian had found David was not innocent "on the balance of probabilities", and as a result the government would not be making an apology or compensating David for wrongfully spending 13 years in prison. Amy also said that David's legal team had indicated that they would have mounted a legal challenge against Ian's report and that while the Crown was confident in the strength of its position no one benefited from the matter continuing to drag on. The Crown therefore agreed to make an ex gratia payment of $925,000 in recognition of the time and expenses incurred by David during the compensation process and the desirability of avoiding further litigation.
The majority of the respondents to opinion polls conducted in 2012, 2013 and 2015 thought David should receive compensation for the time he spent in prison.
The total cost to the taxpayer of the David case was nearly $7 million. The 2009 retrial cost more than $4 million, making it the most expensive trial in New Zealand history.
Following his acquittal, David undertook a 3 month European holiday paid for by his supporters. 10 months later, he was struggling to find work and had no money. Auckland defence lawyer Peter Williams QC said David would be suffering from the stigma experienced by ex-prisoners re-entering the workplace.
In March 2012, David was working for an engineering firm in Auckland. In September 2012, he became engaged to his girlfriend, a Christchurch primary school teacher, and they were married on 10th January 2014. David was working for a Christchurch engineering firm at the time his wife gave birth to a baby boy on 3rd December 2014.
In May 2017, he changed his name by deed poll to William Davies, taking the surname of his wife.
In June 2017, the Crown began disposing of exhibits used in the trials. Crown Law decided it had no legal grounds on which to retain items belonging to David, and his .22 caliber Winchester Model 490 semi automatic rifle and items of clothing would be returned to him through Joe.