A freshly released inmate met with a potential murder suspect and serving prison guard twice while a police investigation was at its height but denied helping cover his tracks, a court heard today.

Ex-Corrections officer David Benbow, 54, who is standing trial for the alleged murder of Christchurch builder Michael McGrath who disappeared on May 22, 2017, and whose body has never been found, was an old school and rugby league mate of Rua Pomare.

This morning, the High Court in Christchurch heard a statement from Pomare, who has passed away since talking to police in 2017.

He had talked about knowing both Benbow and McGrath for most of his life, growing up in Halswell.

Pomare had gone to kindergarten, primary and high school with Benbow, playing league and fishing in their teens at Lyttelton wharf, Diamond Harbour, at Birdlings Flat, even flatting together a couple of times.

He’d never seen Benbow become aggressive except on a rugby league field, he told police.

Pomare did a stint in prison, the court heard, from July 2014 to April 2017.

The friends hadn’t had any contact while he was inside but in February or March 2017 Pomare had been in the visitors’ yard when he looked up and saw Benbow in prison guard uniform, the court heard.

They both got a shock but chatted for a few minutes – about how Benbow had become a prison guard, how his children were, “general stuff” - before Benbow was called away.

Christchurch builder Michael Craig McGrath, 49, was last seen at his home in Halswell, Christchurch, in May 2017.

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Once he was released from prison, Pomare said he hadn’t had any contact with Benbow until he saw in the media that McGrath had gone missing and Benbow was being named as a person of interest.

He texted Benbow and said he was going to his mother’s house on Queen’s Birthday if he wanted to catch up.

Benbow showed up on a pushbike, the court heard, and they chatted for 30-45 minutes, about how he was handling things, why police were searching his Candys Rd property, and how he was “frustrated” about the situation.

“I could see it was affecting him,” Pomare told police.

He asked him directly: “What did you do with him?”

Benbow replied that he didn’t do it, the court heard.

He reportedly told Pomare that police were looking up the wrong tree, which he took it to mean that he was innocent.

Benbow also allegedly told Pomare that one of his children had seen their mother, his former partner Joanna Green, who had left him on March 3, kissing McGrath and had seemed “very pissed off”.

The old friends caught up again on July 2 after Pomare sent him another text message, the court heard.

Again at the house of Pomare’s mother, they chatted and again the “obvious question” for Pomare was whether he had killed McGrath.

Benbow reportedly replied “no”.

Pomare later denied doing anything to assist Benbow, the court heard.

The trial is ongoing at the High Court in Christchurch. Photo / Kai Schwoerer, Stuff, Pool

His mother Marjorie also denied that her son had helped Benbow in any way.

Another close friend of Benbow’s today, Lyn-Marie Borlase, told the jury about supporting him while he was under police investigation.

She asked him three times if he had killed McGrath.

On the first occasion that she put it to Benbow, he allegedly “just had his head down”.

“But that was his demeanour the whole time he was with me that night,” Borlase said.

The second time Benbow allegedly replied: “Well, what do you think Lynny?”

And on the third occasion, he became angry, she told the court.

Benbow’s defence team has warned the jury of “investigative bias” and “tunnel vision” from police early in its investigations.

The Crown allege he lured McGrath to his semi-rural lifestyle property in Halswell on Monday, May 22, 2017 and used his .22 semi-automatic rifle, with suppressor and sub-sonic ammunition, to shoot him dead and then dispose of his body, just weeks after learning he was seeing his ex-partner Green and telling a counsellor he wanted to “annihilate” him.

McGrath’s body has never been found – and nor has a murder weapon - despite widespread searches of properties, rivers, waterways, and the city dump.

The trial, before Justice Jonathan Eaton, continues.