Kay Sinclair

Although the left temple was "the least-favoured site" - apart from the abdomen - for gunshot suicide, the bullet wound to the left side of right-handed Robin Bain's head was "perfectly compatible with self-infliction", an Australian pathologist said yesterday.

Seven months before her death, Laniet Bain told a Dunedin doctor it was going to be difficult to abstain from sex for four days as the doctor had advised her to do, the David Bain murder retrial jury heard yesterday.

The pathologist who carried out post mortems on Lady Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed in 1997 says the rifle which shot Robin Bain was touching or very close to his head.

An independent specialist in DNA and blood-spatter patterns has told the High Court at Christchurch the direction of blood staining on Robin Bain's trackpants was consistent with Mr Bain shooting himself while standing, with his right foot on a chair.

The High Court jury at Christchurch hearing David Bain's retrial for the 1994 murders of his family had yesterday afternoon off because no more defence witnesses were available.

David Bain's foot was too big to have made the bloody sock-prints found in the Bain family home on the morning five of the family were shot, the Bain retrial was told yesterday.

A British firearms expert has told the Bain retrial jury today laboratory tests using the Bain murder weapon and a model showed a person could quite easily shoot himself with the rifle.