With one arm wrapped around the shoulder of his great
supporter Joe Karam, David Bain fought back tears outside the
High Court at Christchurch today.
At last a free man, after one of the longest and most
dramatic legal battles in New Zealand history, Bain managed a
few words before his voice left him.
"All I can say is that without Joe and his solid strength,
without the love of the people that have supported me since
day one, I
wouldn't have made
it through this far," he told cheering supporters.
"Joe, has been there through everything for me."
Bain spent 13 years in jail for a crime the jury took five
hours and 50 minutes to decide he didn't do.
Mr Karam spent millions of his own money fighting the case as
far as the Privy Council in London, and back to Christchurch.
Michael Reed QC, who headed the Bain legal team, left no
doubt that Bain was entitled to compensation for his many
years of lost freedom.
Bain would have to apply to Cabinet for compensation, he
said.
"Of course I believe that should happen after 13 years in
prison. Think how long 13 years is in prison," he told
reporters.
Mr Karam stopped an emotional Bain from answering media
questions when he emerged from the court, having spent
several minutes inside composing himself after the verdict.
Mr Karam said it had been two years since Bain had walked out
of the same court in the wake of the Privy Council ruling his
first trial had been a substantial miscarriage of justice.
Within a month "we were forced to embark upon what no doubt
will go down as the criminal trial of New Zealand's history".
"What has really mattered, what has really mattered is that
the truth, as I said 13 years ago, has finally fallen where
it has always been.
"It has only been a very very unfortunate attitude by various
authorities ... that has caused this thing to last until 2009
and put this good man here through what he has been through."
He said he could not have "fought the evil I have been forced
to fight without David", and the legal team headed by Mr
Reed.
He paid tribute to Bain's supporters, his own friends and
family who had been through an "incredible ordeal", and the
whole legal team.
The most pressing business now was to head off for a
"tipple", Mr Karam said.
Patti Napier, a supporter who knew Bain before the murders,
told Radio New Zealand it was an amazing feeling.
"We're just so absolutely ecstatic ... this one's worth a lot
of tears, it's been a long time coming, and we're just so so
glad to have him out." She had been terrified when the jury
came back.
"We've been through so many knockbacks for so many years, it
was terrifying, I was standing there with my husband, I was
just squeezing the heck out of his hand and just (took) deep
breaths and hopefully we got what we want, what we came for,
and we have, and we're just absolutely over the moon."
They had supported Bain through the years because they knew
he was not the murderer he had been portrayed as.
"I've never, ever at any stage thought he was guilty, I just
thought he was the victim of a really bad judicial system to
start with and now at least I've got a bit more faith in the
system because this time I think they got the verdict right
and we get him home."
David Bain has been found not guilty of the 1994 murders of
his parents and three siblings in Dunedin after a gruelling
retrial which has gripped the nation.
The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for five
hours and 50 minutes before arriving at their vedict.
People in the court cheered and clapped when the verdicts
were announced.
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