YAY I so hope there is no retrial ... shove one up the *** of the police who messed up the evidence soooo badly :>

As follows:

David Bain has today been granted bail after the Privy Council's decision last week to quash his convictions for the 1994 murders of five family members.

Bain appeared before Justice John Fogarty in the High Court in Christchurch this afternoon seeking bail after serving more than 12 years of a minimum 16-year jail term for the murders.

Two tiers of the packed public gallery erupted in cheering and clapping upon news that he had been granted bail.

Bain, dressed in a black suit and white unbuttoned shirt, grinned broadly and turned to the gallery and and hugged his chief supporter Joe Karam, before leaving the courtroom.

He has been bailed to live Joe Karam's property in Te Kauwhata with condition that someone else be at the property at all times and that he does not contact witnesses in the case or initiate contact with members of the Bain family.

Bain was jailed after a jury found him guilty of killing his father Robin, his mother, Margaret, and siblings Arawa, 19, Laniet, 18, and Stephen, 14, at the family's Every St home in Dunedin in 1994.

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AdvertisementBut Bain and his supporters have always maintained his innocence, saying Robin Bain must have been responsible for the killings before turning the gun on himself.

After a failed bid to clear his name at the Court of Appeal, Bain's case went to the Privy Council in London in March and last week the Law Lords who heard the case ordered his murder convictions be quashed.

New Zealand's Solicitor-General David Collins QC will now decide whether a retrial is warranted or feasible.

The case has created debate across the country about the credibility of the judicial system, and raised hopes for other convicted criminals fighting to clear their names.

Around 70 people crammed into the court's public gallery and room had to be made for 25 journalists at today's hearing.

Among those supporting Bain's bid for freedom were staff at Christchurch Men's Prison who wrote letters backing his bail application.