David Bain

Christchurch, May 12 NZPA - Robin Bain looked like a "walking cadaver," according to a Ministry of Education official who carried out an Education Review Office report on Dunedin's Taieri Beach School when he was principal in 1993.

Joan Withers said today Mr Bain was unavailable the first day she was there but the next day she arrived at the school early and he was in a computer room with two or three boys around him.

He took no notice when the bell went and the rest of the children came in.

They were "running chaotic," she said in evidence on the 43rd day of the Christchurch High Court trial of Robin's son David Bain, who is accused of murdering five members of his family in their home in Dunedin in 1994.

Robin Bain was among the five family members found dead at the Every Street house.

The defence has consistently pointed to him murdering his wife and three of his children before turning the gun on himself.

Ms Withers said lesson plans were not available, there was very little in the children's story books, with no marking or comments from the teacher. Their maths books had very little in them and were not corrected.

There were no records of the children, no reading assessment records, and no evaluations taking place.

When she raised these points to get a response from Mr Bain, he was very impassive about the whole thing, and showed no emotion.

His responses were robotic, with no feeling, she said.

"I believed him to be the most unusual person I had ever met, a walking cadaver, with no feeling behind his eyes."

She went back to the school in 1994 to do a review of the recommendations and compliances that were in the ERO report.

The school had worked on the non-compliances highlighted in the report, mostly the work was done by the board, maybe with Mr Bain's input, she said.

He had begun to record the reading age of children, started school guidelines and begun planning some systems.

In February 1994, Robin Bain was the same. He had a bland unemotional demeanour, and it was difficult to engage him, she said.

Catherine Spencer, a German resource consultant for Otago University, said she was helping David Bain learn a new language for a possible international singing career.

She said he was friendly, outgoing and very motivated. He was keen on a German language self-study programme.

There were few students who managed to continue this course of study. He was an exception, she said.

He came to use library materials, and he would let her know how he was getting on, she said.

She was excited by his possible career and was keen to help him with possibilities and courses available at the university.

She visited him in prison regularly, whenever she went to Christchurch.

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