David Bain - Subsequent Events

Subsequent Events

Following his acquittal, Bain undertook a three-month European holiday paid for by his supporters. Ten months later, he was struggling to find work and had no money. Auckland defence lawyer Peter Williams QC said Bain would be suffering from the stigma experienced by ex-prisoners re-entering the workplace. "There's obviously a very strong prejudice against people who can say their recent CV was inside prison," he said.

In an interview with TV3's 60 Minutes, Bain said life in prison had been a very damaging experience and that there were times when he felt like giving up. He also spoke about the importance of unwavering support of long-time advocate Joe Karam. He said the hardest thing to get used to after leaving jail was walking down the street and learning to do every day things by himself without having to wait for permission.

In March 2012, Bain was invited to speak at a three-day conference on legal justice issues in Perth, Western Australia. The conference was billed as a world-first gathering of forensic experts, lawyers and justice advocates. It was Bain's first speech in which he talked about the impact the events have had on him. He said his first trial still haunted him and that his time in prison was a continual battle with depression. In a sometimes tearful address, Bain spoke lovingly of the family he was charged with killing in 1994. He said he would never recover from the loss and admitted he was still in counselling. He said: "Every time I talk to the counsellor, every time I talk to Joe or my lawyers, I have to re-live that nightmare."

In September 2012, Bain became engaged to his girlfriend, a Christchurch school teacher. While in prison he had been engaged to another woman for about five years but after several failed appeals, this relationship did not work out.