Bain (36), who had served 12 years of a life sentence before he was granted bail in May last year following a Privy Council decision to quash his original convictions, is alleged to have murdered his father Robin, mother Margaret, sisters Arawa (19) and Laniet (18), and brother Stephen (14) in their Andersons Bay, Dunedin, home on June 20, 1994.
Following a defence application in Christchurch on March 19 this year, Justice Graham Panckhurst yesterday issued his reserved decision, ruling in favour of the case being transferred to Christchurch.
The change of venue was "expedient for the ends of justice", Justice Panckhurst said.
The judge suppressed the reasons for his decision.
He also suppressed all submissions made by defence counsel Michael Reed and Paul Morten, and Crown counsel Keiran Raftery, during the contested application.
Those orders are to remain in force until a verdict in the case.
Bain supporter Joe Karam said the defence team was disappointed by the decision because it wanted the trial to be held in Auckland.
But the team was not surprised.
"Now, we are just looking forward to spending a bit of time in Christchurch."
Dunedin CIB head Detective Inspector Ross Pinkham, the officer in charge of the case against Bain, said police accepted the judge's decision and were working through the logistics of getting witnesses to Christchurch and accommodating them for the trial.
More than 130 witnesses were to appear for the Crown during the trial, which is set down for three months, starting on August 11, Det Insp Pinkham said.
Of the Crown witnesses, about 80% were from the south of the South Island, he said.
He declined to comment on the extra cost to transport and accommodate witnesses and the police team for the trial, but said it would not be a problem.
"The Dunedin CIB has done it before for the [Colin Bouwer] trial."
Bain was committed for retrial after his convictions for murder were quashed by the Privy Council in London, which found there was a "substantial miscarriage of justice".
The council ordered the Crown in New Zealand to decide whether Bain should be tried again.
He was subsequently granted bail and Solicitor-general David Collins ordered a retrial.
The retrial date was set for May 5 this year, but was moved to August 11 as the next available court date that would allow for pre-trial applications to be heard.
Three pre-trial applications were lodged with the High Court - a Crown application was heard in February, the defence application to change the venue was heard in March and a further application from the defence will be heard next week.
Details from all hearings have so far been suppressed.
University of Otago law professor Mark Henaghan said while suppression of judgements and/or proceedings from pre-trial application hearings was not automatic, it was almost standard practice these days.
"The main reason for suppression is that [the information] may be prejudicial to any future trial."
Justice had to be seen to be done and the more details released before a trial, the more risk the person could effectively be tried before the actual trial, Prof Henaghan said.
"Jury members are part of society.
"They read newspapers, watch television and talk to people, so it is probably best to simply say, `That's it. I'm going to have it in Christchurch' and leave it at that, and people can speculate all they want."
