Long-time David Bain supporter Joe Karam says Mr Bain's trust in Justice Minister Amy Adams is severely knocked after the second confidential report into his claims for compensation was leaked to the media.
"It's really astonishing, considering the shenanigans which happened with (previous minister) Judith Collins, the breaking of trust," he told Newstalk ZB this morning.
"With the Bain case we've had two reports ... where the Herald gets a front page when the damn thing is supposed to be confidential."
Mr Bain has suffered another blow in his compensation claim for wrongful imprisonment after a confidential report by a senior judge found he did not meet the threshold of "innocent beyond reasonable doubt".
The finding means he does not meet the "extraordinary circumstances" test for a compensation claim of wrongful imprisonment.
The report, which has been delivered to Ms Adams to consider, was leaked to the New Zealand Herald, who reported its findings yesterday.
Mr Bain was convicted of murdering his parents and three siblings at their Dunedin home in June 1994 by shooting them with a .22 rifle. He served almost 13 years of his minimum 16-year life sentence.
The Privy Council quashed his convictions in 2007 and ordered a retrial. He was acquitted after a three-month retrial in Christchurch in 2009.
If Mr Bain had been successful in his application for compensation, he could have received up to $2 million on estimates from other successful compensation claims.
Mr Karam said he believed a one-page summary of the report may have been circulated within the Ministry of Justice and said he felt sure someone in the National Party was responsible for the leak.
He said he found it odd that the National Party, who he claimed "detested David Bain's compensation claims", would have access to two confidential reports both of which ended up leaked to the media.
"Why the hell do two of their reports end up on the front page of the Herald," he asked.
Mr Karam said Mr Bain had been inclined to trust Ms Adams when she succeeded Ms Collins, but his faith in her was now all but lost.
