This story shamelessly cut and pasted from Stuff.co.nz
David Bain still owes Dunedin businessman Jules Radich $2000, but the former motorcycle shop owner is prepared to treat it as a donation.
Six weeks before five members of the Bain family were shot in their Every Street house in June 1994, David Bain took a second-hand 600cc Kawasaki motorcycle from Uptown Motorcycles for a test spin and crashed it. He was unhurt.
Radich, 52, who then owned the Dunedin motorcycle firm, was left with an insurance excess bill of $2000 which he tried to recover from Bain.
By then Bain had been arrested for the killings. He wrote to Radich from Dunedin Prison saying he fully intended to pay the bill but, as he was incarcerated, "I do need time".
"I hope this does not inconvenience you too much, but I ask for some patience in this matter," Bain wrote.
Radich, now a mall manager after selling his business three years ago, did not expect to be paid. "I just wrote it off in my head. I'm happy to leave it as a donation to a worthy cause."
However, if Bain got a large compensation package Radich would accept payment.
Bain had crashed the bike after hitting a gutter while over-correcting to avoid an oncoming vehicle.
"He was quite an unusual chap in that he was very calm and considered. Unusually calm for a young chap. I considered him straight and honest. He gave no excuses and said he would pay. Then six weeks later he was locked up for 16 years."
Bain's convictions for the murder of his family were quashed last week and he was freed on bail this week.
Bookmarks