A former detective delayed the trial of Kiama Independent MP Gareth Ward on Thursday after failing to show up by the required start of proceedings.

The NSW District Court was scheduled to convene at 10am at Darlinghouse Courthouse but when former detective senior constable Cameron Bignall did not show up to appear in the witness box, the trial was delayed until 2pm.

Ward is facing five charges and has pleaded not guilty to each of them: sexual intercourse without consent, common assault and three counts of indecent assault.

Bignall led the investigation into allegations following complaints against Ward from a man, aged 24 at the time, over an alleged incident at Potts Point in Sydney’s east a decade ago. 

He has also been accused of indecently assaulting a recently turned 18-year-old at the politician’s Meroo Meadow home in 2013.

Bignall told the Court that he had an unavoidable commitment in the morning and had told that information to a police officer who is part of the case under the impression that this would be enough for him to be excused from the trial until the afternoon.

Ward’s barrister, David Campbell SC, suggested that Bignall’s disregard for following due process was an attitude that he had carried throughout the investigation.

He disagreed with that assertion but admitted he had made an off-hand comment to police that he would be “happy to be arrested” for not appearing at his scheduled time.

“It certainly wasn’t my intention to be disrespectful,” he said.

Campbell has also questioned Bignall, who resigned from the NSW Police Force last year, about why his investigation team did not interview a man who shared the Potts Point apartment with Ward when the alleged assault occurred in 2015.

He could not explain why the third man had not been interviewed and conceded that Police had taken years to check taxi records from the 2013 alleged incident to verify the complainant’s claim that Ward had paid for a taxi to his Meroo Meadow home.

By the time the Police requested the records from the taxi company, it had changed ownership and the information was no longer available.

The trial, which is in its seventh week, before Judge Shead continues.

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