The former Australian judge appointed to provide evidence to Justice Minister Amy Adams found several unexplained "loose ends'' which meant David Bain could not prove his innocence on the balance of probabilities.
"In the fictional murder mysteries Mr Robin Bain was reading before his death, all of the ends are tied and the crimes elegantly solved,'' Ian Callinan QC concluded in his report assessing David's innocence.
"People in real life and the courts that adjudicate upon conflicting facts know that all of the questions cannot always be answered and all of the issues neatly resolved.
"This is such a case.''
Mr Callinan extensively reviewed the case to provide advice to Ms Adams so the Cabinet could assess David Bain's eligibility for compensation.
After reviewing the case - including the evidence of the 1995 trial and 2009 retrial - Mr Callinan reached the conclusion David Bain could not prove his innocence on the balance of probabilities.
David Bain left some matters "still unexplained or does not include persuasive evidence on some matters to support his case'', Mr Callinan said
in his report.
"I have to say that expert evidence adduced on behalf of [David Bain] or elicited in cross-examination which pointed to possibilities, even reasonable possibilities, has failed to established possibilities as probabilities,'' he said.
Of particular note were Mr Callinan's remarks about an alleged incestuous relationship between Robin Bain and his daughter, Laniet.
The relationship was promoted by the defence as a possible motive for Robin to murder the family. However, Mr Callinan was "not satisfied'' the sexual relationship existed.
"All of the evidence about this came from Laniet in the first place,'' he said.
"Laniet herself was unreliable, a prostitute and user ... of marijuana.''
Even if the relationship was taking place, it did not imply Robin had a motive to kill her and the other members of the family, excluding David.
He was unconvinced of Robin's physical ability to kill Stephen, who was almost strangled to death using his own T-shirt before being shot for a second time following the violent struggle.
"There was a large disparity between the physiques and strengths of each the applicant [David] and [Robin] Bain,'' the report said.
"The applicant had a considerably greater physical capacity to overpower his valiant brother in his ultimately futile fight for his life.
"Strength and remorseless determination would have been necessary to strangle him almost to death with his own T-shirt.''
David and his supporters had not advanced an "acceptable theory'' about how a lens, from a pair of his mother's glasses that David was known to wear, came to be in Stephen's room.
"The uncontested evidence is that the glasses were of no use to Mr Robin Bain.''
He also raised issues with David's inability to account for the about 20 minutes that elapsed between the discovery of his family's bodies and calling emergency services.
"The undoubted fact is ... that the applicant did not, as one might reasonably expect, immediately on discovery of his parents' bodies telephone emergency services,'' Mr Callinan said.
"That expectation is raised in a situation in which, as he claimed at the trial, he heard 'gurgling' sounds from Laniet.
"Most people would think that if she were 'gurgling' there might be a chance that she might possibly still be alive and respond to emergency treatment.''
Mr Callinan made no comment on the guilt of David or Robin as that was outside the scope of Ms Adams' request.
"I answer the question which I am asked and no more than that,'' he said.
Many matters were in favour of David's case, including his former good character, his "frankness'' in early police interviews and his admission he could not account for bruising on his head the morning of the killings.
Bain case: The incontestable objective facts, according to Ian Callinan QC
1. The rifle used by the murderer was David Bain's.
2. The silencer used by the murderer was David's.
3. David used the rifle from time to time.
4. Robin Bain was familiar with firearms and helped sight the rifle.
5. The key to the trigger lock to enable the rifle to be fired was David's.
6. There were two keys to the trigger lock.
7. One key was attached to a necklace found in a pocket of David's red anorak in Robin's van.
8. The other key was on the floor of David's bedroom immediately after the murders.
9. This key was kept in a lidded pottery jar on a chest of drawers in David's bedroom.
10. The bullets fired from David's rifle belonged to David.
11. The white opera gloves used by the murderer were David's.
12. The white opera gloves were kept in David's bedroom in a drawer with another pair of his gloves and other clothing items.
13. Stephen Bain was partially strangled as well as shot.
14. Stephen fought for his life before his murderer killed him.
15. Stephen was a healthy, fit 14-year-old when he fought for his life.
16. One of David's bloodstained white gloves was found under Stephen's bed.
17. Robin had available to him leather gloves which were found inhis caravan.
18. Robin was in his late fifties, about 175cm tall and of slight, somewhat wasted, frail build when he died.
19. David was 22 years old, 190cm-194cm tall and a fit, athletic young man in June 1994.
20. David's fingerprints were found on the murder weapon.
21. David's palm print was found on the washing machine in the laundry.
22. David's clothing was found to have the blood of one or more of his siblings on it.
23. David sorted clothes for washing and caused evidence, blood stains that may have been on them, to be irretrievably lost.
24. The soles of David's white socks were bloodstained, one more than the other. There were blood spots on the upper part of one of these.
25. On post-mortem, Robin had about 400ml of fluid in his bladder, consistent with an overnight collection.
26. David was unable to explain the bruising on his face, although he was clear that he had not been bruised before he went out on his paper run.
27. There were a number of scratches on David's body before and at the time of his arrest. Dr Thomas Pryde, who examined David a few hours after the murders, made no note of any such scratches.
28. David had afresh scratch or abrasion on one knee which he did not suffer on his paper run.
29. David was quite emphatic to the investigating police and to others from his first interview to his arrest and charging that he had not entered Stephen, Laniet or Arawa's rooms.
30. A damaged glasses frame which belonged to hismother was found in David's room soon after the murders.
31. David asked for the glasses on the morning after the murders. He told others he had been wearing his mother's glasses over the preceding weekend.
32. The lens found in Stephen's room was the lens missing from the glasses found in David's room.
33. There was no conceivable reason why Robin would wear his wife's glasses.
34. Robin was a competent operator of, and enthusiastic about, computers.
35. There were spent shells that could or had been used in the rifle in the caravan occupied by Robin.
36. The house smelled and was in an extremely dirty and untidy state.
37. The family, with the exception perhaps of Arawa and Stephen, was dysfunctional by reference to the standards of ordinary, educated people.
38. There was blood on the light switch to David's room, which David was unable to offer any explanation for.
39. There were faint traces of blood on Robin's hands.
40. There was no blood detected inside David's new running shoes.
41. The daily newspaper was on a table in the hall when the police arrived and it had not been put there by David.
42. David told more than one person that he hated his father and that he wanted him out of the house, indeed out of his family's lives.
43. The possession and use of achainsaw was a recurrent source of friction between David and his father.
44. A small minority of the children whom Robin taught had written gruesome stories which were published in a school publication.
45. There was reason for Robin to be unhappy.
46. David's parents were estranged.
47. David gave a different version of his movements after he returned home at his first trial than those given to police in interviews and to others. Among the discrepancies were hearing Laniet ‘‘gurgling'', entering his siblings' rooms and his affection for his father.
48. David was unable to account for a period of about 20 minutes before he called emergency services.
49. There were instances of unusual behaviour by David before and after the murders.
50. There were no fewer than five bloodied footprints in the house of varying sizes and states of completeness.
51. David did not say that he saw or felt any blood or bloodstains before he entered his mother's room.
52. There was a note typed on the computer on the morning of the murders which read ‘‘sorry, you are the only one who deserved to stay''.
53. David particularly wanted Laniet to sleep at home on the evening before the fatalities.
