A Dunedin man who was the subject of an arrest warrant to appear at the David Bain trial says he has lodged a complaint with the New Zealand Law Society about defence counsel Michael Reed QC.
The retrial of David Bain has cost the country more than $2.6 million in legal aid and costs to the police and the courts, and probably millions more if the hours various police, court and prosecution legal staff put in to the case are counted.
A victory for David Bain yes, and his legal team led by Michael Reed, but the not guilty verdicts today were a triumph and vindication too for Joe Karam.
David Bain's original defence lawyer says he was confident his former client would be found not guilty, after crucial evidence was allowed before the jury for the first time.
Key dates in the Bain case:-
June 20, 1994 - David Bain's parents, Robin and Margaret, two sisters Laniet and Arawa and brother Stephen are shot and killed in their Dunedin home. Bain calls emergency services in a distraught state.
June 24, 1994 - Bain is charged with five counts of murder. The following day the rest of his family are farewelled by 1000 mourners.
"Was it Robin, was it David?" - the question put to a High Court jury in Dunedin in 1995 was posed again in Christchurch yesterday before 12 jurors retired to begin their deliberations in the trial of 37-year-old David Cullen Bain.
A 15 year trip was nearing its end and the jury was given an awesome responsibility to decide whether David Bain went home tomorrow, penniless but free, his defence lawyer said.