(1) The rifle magazine landed on its thin edge of its own accord after Robin Bain shot himself.
(2) The rifle magazine landed on its thin edge of its own accord after David Bain shot Robin.
(3) The rifle magazine was placed there by David to make it appear as if Robin had shot himself.
(4) The rifle magazine was placed there by Robin after he shot himself.
(5) The rifle magazine was placed there by the police in an attempt to frame David for the suicide death of his father.
(6) The rifle magazine was placed there by the police in an attempt to exonerate David of the murder of his father.
(7) The rifle magazine was placed there by the police just for the lulz.
8) Robin took the empty magazine out of the gun, placed it on the ground, put the other magazine in the gun and shot himself.
From the Binnie Report…
Did you notice the tricks in the language?
“… when dropped… ” instead of “… if dropped… ”
“… planted by the killer…” instead of “… placed by the killer…”
This leads the reader to a strawman – false dichotomy.
The strawman (“when dropped”) suggests that the defence claim that it dropped.
The false dichotomy being that the magazine was either “dropped” or “planted.”
Whoever wrote that caption should be taken out and shot. š
reed says:
8) Robin took the empty magazine out of the gun, placed it on the ground, put the other magazine in the gun and shot himself.
So what you are saying is that Robin Bain carefully placed the 10 shot magazine on the floor on its narrow edge, proceeded to shoot himself in the most difficult manner possible, and as his dead body fell to the floor, his hand just happened to land within half a cm of the magazine perched on its narrow edge without knocking it over?
You balance a magazine like that on a carpet, then drop a 60 kg sack of spuds right next to it… magazine falls over. Old houses like that have wooden floorboards with a degree of flexibility. Much more likely it was placed after Robin’s death.
I’m saying that it is plausible that Robin took the empty magazine out of the gun, placed it on the ground, put the other magazine in the gun and shot himself.
I don’t think there is any significance in the position of Robin’s hand relative to the magazine – if Robin’s hand had landed on the magazine someone would be saying “what is the probability that Robin’s hand would land like that? It must be planted.”
Is there a bullet in the empty magazine or is that what empty magazines look like?
I know nothing about guns. Do magazines fall out of guns when you shoot people? I have no fucking clue.
Matt
If you dropped a 60kg sack of spuds (where do you shop?) an arms length from the magazine I think the chances of it staying up would be fair – but Police contend that Robin was kneeling so… I think that rolling a 60kg sack of spuds over at an arms length’s distance from the magazine it would be pretty unlikely to cause the magazine to fall over.
spent shell casings fall out, I don’t think magazines do.
Richard
There were two magazines.
A 5 shot which was in the gun and an empty ten shot that was on the floor next to Robin.
The 5 shot remained in the gun.
Reed – fair point but it would be an easy test to do. I just need a magazine like the one in the photo. I was guessing Robin to be 60kg. Spuds may not be the best substitute for a human body. Any ideas?
Experiment completed: I don’t have a .22 magazine or a sack of potatoes. I do have an iPhone and a human body though. I placed my iPhone on its edge on a carpeted over wood floor. Fell from my knees with hand falling near phone (could never manage to fall within 0.5cm of the phone – so I always fell much further away than the evidence photo). Repeated experiment 10 times. Phone fell over every time.
Probably not the most rigorous experiment ever done. For me the point that the phone fell over every time was not the most important point of my experiment. The fact that even when desperately trying, I could not, with 10 attempts, manage to fall from my knees to a position where my hand fell within 0.5cm (or even within 10cm) of my phone tells me that this is an extremely unlikely event, and the magazine staying on its edge is even more unlikely.
Nice work Craig. More worthy of the title “Slam dunk” than those non-parallel scratches on Robin’s thumb!
Still waiting for an explanation from Reed on how Stephen’s blood innocently got all over David. Maybe tomorrow. Goodnight.
New evidence has come to light.
I now think the most plausible explanation is that the Police staged this photo.
Craig, you don’t have a magazine or a sack of potatoes… but do you have a bean bag?