Bain compensation: what the calculator says.

With the  Bain application for compensation due for a result before xmas along with a sudden quietness in place since an agreement that settled David Bain's Judicial Review of the former Minister of Justice's decision to not honour an independent review of David's guilt or innocence it could be time to consider how much compensation, if any, he could be awarded. The following, using an inflation calculator, takes as it base line the compensation paid to Arthur Thomas in 1979 after he was pardoned for a double homicide which has never been solved.

Arthur Allen Thomas got $950,000

Go to http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/monetary_policy/inflation_calculator/

Set the cost to $950,000, the date of cost to Q4 1979, leave the date for comparison as it is…

Then try putting in $300,000 – which was his inheritance – and seeing what that works out to. 

 I got the following under the general index on the comparison of the amount awarded to Thomas at $4.7 million and $1.6 million for the inheritance he lost under the housing index.

As expected none of the 'hangbainers' were able to respond to my earlier blog 'If the sock print fits,' wherein a picture shows the difference between the shape of David's foot to that of his late father as lifted from the murder scene - it wasn't just size but also shape. Similarly the forensic evidence included in David's application cannot be overcome either individually or collectively - science leads where Justice has stumbled.

Rightly or wrongly, I've been confident about David Bain gaining compensation since he was acquitted at his retrial all those years ago. Perhaps above I don't have my calculations quite right, nevertheless - I'm sure I have one thing correct, that is the credibility of the NZ Justice system is at stake and it will put this actual Miscarriage of Justice right. I sometimes think of the white gloves the killer of the Bain family was said to have worn to see the symbolism of a broken man believing he was putting things right before surrendering his beliefs to his god with a dark shadow and blood over himself that the gloves didn't hide.