I had a chat with someone yesterday who knew Robin. She lived in Taieri Mouth at the time and her children were taught by Robin. She has so much to say on the subject and will attempt to write more down but here is what I can remember.

Robin Bain wasn't supposed to be at Taieri Beach school for a long time, he was only relieving for the old principal.

Robin would come down and park his commer van outside the school, stay in it during the week and go home in the weekend. Sometimes he would leave the van there and ride his motorbike down to Taieri Beach School.

A petition went round the school asking for support,  as the parents and the board did not want Robin to leave, because he was well respected by the school and parents and they didn't want the old principal back. So Robin stayed on permanently.  The kids loved Robin. They would often sit on his knee at mat time and he was great mates with the kids. That is not indicative of someone who touched children.

Robin never stayed at the camping ground.  I asked this person about the comments of him being a "dirty smelly man". She said he was never dirty,  and always had clean clothes on, especially a clean shirt. He did start to have a slight smell, as he couldn't shower - being in the van. He was then offered the school house and he took this up.  Laniet came down to stay with her dad - she was given a choice of where to stay  -she could stay in the van on her own if she wanted, but she chose to be in the house with her father. She was well known to the people of Taieri Mouth as she used to babysit the schoolchildren.

This lady has fond memories of Robin - he took the kids on school camps - this lady went to every camp with him. She said he was a lovely man and nothing inappropriate ever happened.  At morning tea times, the parents often stayed to have a cup of tea with Robin.
 
Robin rarely talked about David. But he spoke lovingly of his son Stephen, who was the light in his life. And of Arawa. She was a contestant in Queen of the Heather in her teen years and Robin was very proud of this and showed the school photos of her time and time again.

She said that sometimes Robin did look sad, but he missed his children, only seeing them on the weekend. It was a normal occurence for Robin to go home weekends and return on Mondays.

After the murders, this lady had TV reporters ringing her all the time for information about Robin. There had been information given to them about a teacher hitting a pupil at Taieri Beach school. The Ministry of Education are not allowed to give names but the media inferred it was Robin, when in fact Robin took over the job from the guy. The media were not believing what she was saying and stated that she was trying to make the school look good.

I asked her about Darryl Young. She said he had never been out and does not know why he is lying. The office lady took minutes of meetings and it is clearly stated in the minutes that the photocopier guy  - NOT Darryl Young - had been out and done what he needed to do. This is documented. It was the guy that spoke at the end of the show that had been out.