95. The initial Police “reconstruction” of events was that David Bain had murdered his family in a trance-like killing spree between his return home from delivering newspapers around 6.43 am and calling the 111 operator at about 7.10 am. Subsequently the Police concluded that the logistics of the “frenzied 25 minutes theory” were not compatible with the evidence at the crime scene. The Police came to believe that only Robin had been killed after the paper route. The others had been murdered beforehand (the “four before one after” theory).
96. The revised theory was that at about 5.00 am or earlier on the morning of Monday, 20 June 1994, David Bain got up and dressed in a T-shirt and black shorts, over which he wore track pants and the green loose weave V-necked sweater and possibly a black skivvy. He took from the wardrobe in his room his .22 calibre Winchester self-loading rifle and released the trigger lock with the spare key. He took a supply of ammunition from the same wardrobe. Only David Bain knew where these things were kept.
97. David Bain is near sighted. His regular glasses were broken and had been left in a shop for repair a few days earlier. On the morning of June 20, he wore an old pair of his mother’s glasses, which gave him 90% of normal vision (as compared with 75% normal vision without glasses.) In the struggle with Stephen, the frames were knocked off his head and the lenses were dislodged. The left lens was later found by Det. Sgt Weir in Stephen’s bedroom. The Police found the broken frames and the right lens in David Bain’s bedroom.
98. According to the prosecution, Robin slept through the murders out of earshot in the caravan elsewhere on the property.
99. In the course of the initial batch of four killings, the Police say David Bain’s person and clothing became heavily stained with blood. Prior to leaving the house to do his paper route, he washed his hands – possibly showered – changed his outer clothes, leaving unintended blood stains in the bathroom/laundry room. He put his blood-soiled clothing in the washing machine with other family laundry, and started it on a full cycle.
100. David Bain then took steps to contrive an alibi to exculpate himself and shift the blame to his father. At about 5.45 am he left the house and completed his paper route more quickly than usual, making sure that he was seen by various people so that they would later be available to corroborate his physical absence from the house in the early hours of Monday morning. His departure left the bloody crime scene open for an hour or so. He told the Police his father generally surfaced “between twenty to and ten past seven. He thus risked (on the Crown’s theory) the chance that Robin would come into the house a bit early by the downstairs door, discover the bodies and raise an emergency alarm with the Police prior to David’s return. In fact, the Crown Law Office accepts that Robin had collected the newspaper from the letterbox and brought it “inside the house” (para 208), indicating Robin had entered the house before David got home, but not raised any alarm.
101. According to the prosecution, as David entered the house, he made a right turn into the lounge on the main floor and switched on the family computer at about 6.44 am. Either then or at some later time he typed in the self-serving “suicide” message “SORRY, YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO DESERVED TO STAY”. Its purpose was to give the false appearance of a murder/suicide. The Police considered use of the past tense (“deserved”) rather than the present tense (“deserves”) shows it is unlikely the message was typed by Robin.
102. David Bain then took advantage of his father’s morning “ritual” which was to leave the caravan around 7.00 am to come into the lounge to pray. David, it was alleged, waited with his .22 rifle in the computer alcove adjacent the lounge and, as his father was on his knees deep in prayer, shot him in the head at close range. He then rearranged the scene to make it look like a suicide, and after an unexplained interval, eventually rang the emergency services at about 7.10 am to report the killings, pretending to be in a state of great distress.
103. Initially he was treated as a victim of the family murder/suicide. Only later, after further Police investigation, did the Police conclude that he should be charged as the killer.
