Black Hands - The conclusion


"...the factors pointing to Robin are mainly conjecture based on outside possibilities. The absence of evidence in some areas may be the fault of the Dunedin Police, investigating at the time. But it's a big jump from saying the Police and scientists made mistakes to saying those failures mean David is innocent. Unfortunately, the Bain case has become more about flaws in the Police investigation and scientific analysis than the evidence actually uncovered showing David is a much more likely killer of the Bain family than his father."

"Let's just look at the combined strength of the five items of hard evidence pointing to David as the shooter. These are David's bloody fingerprints on the rifle; Steven's blood on David's clothes; the lens, found in Steven's room; David's injuries; and David hearing his sister Laniet gurgle when, if his story is correct, she should have been long dead. Each of these features of the case has difficulties and may have innocent explanations...however, the difficulty for David is that all five items of evidence exist in the first place. Then, he has another major problem: Not only does David have this powerful collection of evidence directly pointing to him as the killer, but he is also incredibly unfortunate - if he is innocent - to have Robin not leave a single clear clue that he is the killer. In other words, what an amazing coincidence it would be, if David is innocent, that all these items have through some terrible quirk of luck combined to make him look guilty."

"For David's story to stand up, we have to accept, in my view, a whole pile of (implausibilities). Robin is supposed to have found the key to unlock the trigger lock on David's rifle in a little ceramic jar on David's desk in his bedroom...he must have put on a pair of white gloves belonging to David, even though he had his own pair. Why would Robin have felt the need to wear gloves, especially since he intended to end his own life after the killings?...the fight with Steven should have left some nasty and obvious bruises on the frail, cadaverous Robin...but Robin hardly had a mark on him...instead of just putting the gun to his head and pulling the trigger after his horrific night's work, he produced yet another inconvenient bit of evidence for David to explain. He decided he would clean up and change his clothes before meeting his maker...David, unfortunately for him, didn't notice a thing when he picked up the blood-soaked clothes to put them in the washing machine, despite getting blood on the container of washing powder, and probably putting a clear and bloody palm print on the washing machine...(Robin) was right-handed, so the most natural thing for him to do - having decided on a temple shot - was to grab the silencer by his left hand, hold it to his right temple, and pull the trigger with his right hand. Instead, he chose to pull the trigger with his left hand and hold the muzzle up to an odd part of his left temple."