He agreed with the suggestion his case theory was that Lynette was dead and Dawson had killed her.

David asked:“You were incapable,weren’t you,officer,of considering any evidence outside of that?”

“I disagree,” Loone replied.

He was questioned as to why he did not take a statement from Phillip Day,a friend of the Dawson couple,who was at Northbridge Baths on January 9,1982,when Dawsonclaims Lynette called to say “she needed time away”.

Loone said he had visited Day with Detective Sergeant John Pendergast in 1999 and took handwritten notes,and he believed they had intended to return to take a formal statement.

Asked whether he was “not interested enough to take one”,as it corroborated what Dawson had told police in 1991,Loone said “it wouldn’t have been the fact we weren’t interested” but they had timing restraints and other duties.

Pendergast gave evidence this week that he did not think Day “was that important” as he did not witness the call or its content and “was relying on what Chris Dawson told him” about it.

David also asked why Loone had not taken a formal statement from a woman who contacted him in 2001 and said she had worked in the Northbridge Baths kiosk as a teenager.

She previously testified a female had phoned for “one of the Dawsons” in January or February 1982 “and there were long-distance pips”,but she could not remember if the person identified herself.

The defence said it was consistent with Dawson “having told the truth about receiving a phone call”.

Loone said it could have come down to “other pressing matters”.

In earlier evidence,Loone said he met with Lynette’s family and a psychic who “reached out” to them in 2003. He did not pursue any line of inquiry from that meeting.

He was asked by David why “finding the time to organise a psychic” was “more important than taking a critical statement from a critical witness” from the day of the call.

Loone said he did not organise the psychic at the Dawsons’ Bayview home,but was present that day.

David asked,“How long would it have taken to take a statement from[the kiosk worker]?

“In hindsight,one should’ve been taken,but one wasn’t,” Loone replied.

David asked,“It was a deliberate omission on your part,wasn’t it?”

“It wasn’t a deliberate omission on my part,no,” Loone said.

He said he did not take a formal statement from Lynette’s mother,Helena Simms,in 1998 as she “wasn’t well” and it was decided to take one later,but that did not happen. She died in 2001.

Loone agreed that Simms was a critical witness for reasons including that she was with Dawson at Northbridge Baths,and had told police “Chris was called away to the kiosk”.

Asked whether the coroner was provided information about alleged sightings of Lynette,including by her former neighbours in 1984,Loone said they were investigated and “found to be false”.

In her opening address,David claimed “vital evidence” consistent with Lynette being alive after January 8 and 9,1982,was not available to the court. She said there was “wilful disregard” by some police to follow leads of signs of life as it did not accord with a view they formed against Dawson.

“They’re not innocent failures,the defence will submit,” David said on Friday.

Dawson’s judge-alone trial before Justice Ian Harrison continues.

The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interestingstories,analysis and insights.Sign up here.