Dear Joe,

When members of the police develop a strong hunch for some reason about a particular suspect but can’t quite put together enough evidence to justify an arrest occasionally a misguided officer takes it upon himself to help things along a bit by planting some damning evidence as seemed to be the case with Arthur Allen Thomas, the man arrested for the Crewe murders.

In 1997 Joe Karam had decided that on the evidence Robin Bain had killed four members of his family and he wrote about it in his book David and Goliath. This opinion about the evidence was at odds with the police and forensic experts that worked on the case in 1994.

From Bain and beyond. Page 19

Joe Karam writes: [quote] Robin Bain's death carries all the hallmarks of suicide-- a contact wound to the temple and rifle lying beside the body. This statement is corroborated by two eminent Australian pathologists, and is by the original pathologists post mortem notes which were not disclosed to the defence or the jury.[end quote]

...The original pathologist Dr Dempster conclusion was cited by the trial Judge in summing up:

With the Bain case at the first trial the judge said "well was it Robin or David", and in the second trial the judge asked the same question, so we have two possible murderers, but to identify who the killer was between these two, completely different methods were used, which is really quite unusual I believe.