Judge Binnie donates to David Bain

Stuff reports:

A donor claiming to be Ian Binnie, the retired judge appointed to review David Bain’s compensation claim, has given a donation to Bain’s Givealittle campaign

Justice campaigner Roger Brooking set up the Campaign for David Bain page, raising just over $12,000.

Included in the 85 donors was $250 from a person named “Ian Binnie”.

Brooking understood the donation to be from the retired Judge of the Supreme Court of Canada, who concluded Bain was innocent on the balance of probabilities of the murder of his parents, two sisters and brother in Dunedin in 1994.

“There is the option to make the donation anonymous, so he clearly put his name on it because he wanted people to know how strongly he felt.”

This is spectacularly inappropriate, and reinforces all the concerns people had over Judge Binnie’s report. He clearly has become a crusader for Bain, rather than a detached independent judge.