Murder of Lynette Dawson

Lynette Joy Dawson (born 1948) was an Australian woman who disappeared on or about 8 January 1982,[1] leaving two daughters and her husband, former rugby league footballer Chris Dawson.[2] Her whereabouts are unknown, but two coronial inquests found that she had been murdered.[3] On 30 August 2022, Chris Dawson was convicted of Lynette's murder[4] and sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Murder of Lynette Dawson
Datec. 8 January 1982
PerpetratorChris Dawson
DeathsLynette Dawson
ChargesMurder
VerdictGuilty
Sentence24 years' jail, non-parole period of 18 years
AwardsGold Walkley awarded to The Teacher's Pet

Background

Lynette Simms and Chris Dawson, both aged 16, met at a high-school function in 1965. They were married in 1970 at St Jude's Church, Randwick, in Sydney[5][6] and later had two children.[7] Between 1972 and 1976, Chris and his identical twin brother Paul played professional rugby league football for the Newtown Jets. In 1975, the Dawson brothers and their spouses appeared on the ABC documentary program Chequerboard to discuss how the twins' close bond affected their lives.[8][9]

After ending their rugby careers, the Dawson brothers found employment as physical education teachers, with Chris working at Cromer High School near Sydney. Both Chris and Paul are alleged to have regularly engaged in illicit sexual behaviour with female students at their respective schools; Chris is further alleged to have been one of six male teachers who preyed on students at Cromer High School.[10] In 1981, Chris groomed and had sex with Cromer student Joanne Curtis, who temporarily moved into the Dawson family residence in Bayview at Chris's invitation.[5] She permanently moved into the residence on 10 January 1982, two days after Lynette's disappearance.[5]

Lynette was phoned by her mother on 8 January 1982, the last time they would communicate with each other.[11] She planned to meet her mother and family at Northbridge Baths the following day, but never arrived.[11] Chris didn't report his wife as missing until six weeks after she had vanished.[5] He claimed that she left after marital problems caused over her Bankcard spending. In a statement to police, Chris suggested that she had joined a religious organisation. He finalised divorce proceedings against Lynette in 1983, and married Curtis the following year.[5]

Investigation

After investigations by the New South Wales Police proved inconclusive, the NSW State Coroner conducted two coronial inquiries into Lynette's disappearance. At the first inquest held in February 2001, the Deputy State Coroner Jan Stevenson determined that Lynette had been murdered and that her killer was someone she knew. The coroner recommended charges be laid; however, Nicholas Cowdery QC, the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, assessed that there was insufficient evidence for a criminal conviction. A second inquest, held in February 2003 by State Coroner Carl Milovanovich, recommended Chris be charged with Lynette's murder.[5][6][11][12] Cowdery again refused to prosecute Dawson, citing the lack of evidence.[5] [13]

In April 2018, following extensive investigations, NSW Police requested the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to review its brief of evidence.[5] Chris was arrested in Queensland in December 2018, extradited to New South Wales, and charged with the murder of his first wife.[14][15] He was granted bail,[16] and in June 2019 pleaded not guilty to her murder.[17] In February 2020, Chris was committed to stand trial for the murder of Dawson.[18] He is also facing a charge of carnal knowledge with a girl between the ages of 10 and 17, relating to his sexual relationship with Curtis while still a teacher at Cromer High School.[19]

Trial

Chris Dawson applied to have the case stayed on the basis that there had been an "inordinate delay" in prosecuting him, and that there was a risk that members of the jury could have prejudged his guilt due to widespread publicity about the case.[20] A temporary stay was granted "to allow publicity to fade from jurors' minds",[21] but his application for a permanent stay was denied in both the NSW Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeal.[20] In April 2022, he was denied special leave by Justice Stephen Gageler to appeal to the High Court of Australia.[20][22]

In May 2022, Justice Robert Beech-Jones granted Dawson's application for a judge-alone trial after he argued the "extensive pre-trial publicity meant a jury was unsuitable in his case."[21] The trial before Justice Ian Harrison began on 9 May and ran for 10 weeks, concluding on 11 July.[23] The prosecution presented a circumstantial case, alleging Dawson's motive for murder was his desire for an "unfettered relationship" with Curtis.[23] The defence acknowledge Dawson may have "failed" his wife but that she "left and abandoned" the family of her own accord, and suggested she may have created a new life.[23] The defence relied on a number of witnesses who claimed to have seen Lynette since her disappearance.[23] Chris Dawson chose not to give evidence.[24]

On 30 August 2022, Justice Harrison took five hours to deliver his reasons for finding Dawson guilty.[23] He found Dawson had lied on a number of occasions,[23] including about his relationship with Curtis, about his desire to resume a relationship with his wife, and about receiving phone calls from Lynette after she disappeared.[25] Harrison rejected the alleged sightings of Lynette as "wholly unreliable", and found there was a "most compelling body of evidence" to reject the hypothesis that Lynette Dawson abandoned her family.[24] He was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Lynette Dawson died "as a result of a conscious and voluntary act" by Chris Dawson.[24][26]

On December 2, 2022, Dawson was sentenced to 24 years in jail, with a non-parole period of 18 years, for the murder of Lynette.[27]

Media

A 16-part Australian crime podcast series, The Teacher's Pet, by Walkley Award-winning journalist Hedley Thomas of The Australian, was broadcast in 2018 with a large amount of evidence that was not collected by any of the police investigations.[28] The series has close to 30 million downloads[29] and created a large amount of public interest in the case.[28] It was made unavailable in Australia during legal proceedings.[30] In October 2023, the book version of The Teacher's Pet was released on October 10. [31] [32]

See also

References
  1. "R v Dawson - NSW Caselaw". www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  2. "Lynette Joy Dawson". Australian Missing Persons Register. n.d. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  3. "The Teacher's Pet: The unsolved murder of Lyn Dawson". The Australian. 15 May 2018. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  4. Parkes-Hupton, Heath (29 August 2022). "Dawson in custody, appeal 'probable', after marathon five-hour Teacher's Pet verdict handed down, as it happened". ABC News.
  5. Chung, Laura (5 December 2018). "Timeline of the disappearance of Lynette Dawson". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 July 2019. (subscription required)
  6. "DPP reconsiders evidence in suspected Dawson murder". The Australian. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
  7. Clare Stephens (11 July 2018). "The Teacher's Pet: The faces behind the gripping true crime story". Mamamia. Archived from the original on 24 October 2018. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  8. Strange world of the Dawson twins as brothers separated after murder allegations against Chris. Sutton, Candace. News.com.au. 7 December 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  9. "Justice arrives at long last for Lyn Dawson's family". The Australian.
  10. The Teacher's Pet Episode 2, 23 May 2018.
  11. "Sydney police 'hand dig' Lynette Dawson's home in 1982 cold case". Guardian Australia. 12 September 2018. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  12. "Chris Dawson presented a handwritten statement to police". Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  13. "What Chris Dawson's teenage bride confessed over coffee". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  14. "Chris Dawson from Teacher's Pet podcast arrested by Homicide Squad". ABC News. Australia. 5 December 2018. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  15. McGowan, Michael (4 December 2018). "Chris Dawson arrested and expected to be charged with murder of Lyn Dawson". Guardian Australia. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  16. Reddie, Mark (17 December 2018). "Chris Dawson granted bail after being charged with wife Lyn's alleged murder". ABC News. Australia. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  17. McKinnell, Jamie (20 June 2019). "Chris Dawson pleads not guilty to wife's murder in Teacher's Pet case". ABC News. Australia.
  18. "Chris Dawson committed to stand trial". The Sydney Morning Herald. 13 February 2020.
  19. McKinnell, Jamie; Reddie, Mark (20 June 2019). "Clairvoyant claims at Dawson murder trial as former teacher faces historic sex charge". ABC News.
  20. Mitchell, Georgina (8 April 2022). "Chris Dawson denied special leave to appeal to High Court in bid to stay murder trial". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  21. Mitchell, Georgina (2 May 2022). "Chris Dawson granted judge-alone trial for wife's alleged murder". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  22. Gleeson, Ashleigh (8 April 2022). "High Court refuses to hear Chris Dawson's application to halt trial". news.com.au. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  23. Dudley, Ellie; Panagopoulous, Joanna (30 August 2022). "Chris Dawson guilty of Lynette Dawson's murder". The Oz. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  24. McKinnell, Jamie (30 August 2022). "Chris Dawson found guilty of murdering wife Lynette Dawson". ABC News. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  25. Shames, Housni (30 August 2022). "The four lies Chris Dawson told that landed him behind bars for murdering his wife Lynette". ABC News. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  26. "Teacher's Pet case: 'Tell us where mum is', Chris Dawson's daughter begs". BBC News. 10 November 2022.
  27. McKinnell, Jamie (2 December 2022). "Chris Dawson will 'probably die in jail' after being sentenced to 24 years for wife's murder". ABC News. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  28. Murray, David (17 August 2018). "The Teacher's Pet: Podcast on hold pending further developments". The Australian. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  29. "Chris Dawson: Husband faces murder trial over 1982 disappearance of wife". BBC News. 25 September 2020. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  30. "Why 'The Teacher's Pet' Podcast Has Been Removed". Marie Claire. 8 April 2019. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  31. "The secret behind the crime story of the decade". the Australian.
  32. "The Teacher's Accuser: Shanelle Dawson, daughter of murderer Chris Dawson, contemplates visiting him in prison". the Australian.
  • "Lynette Joy DAWSON". Australian Missing Persons Register. – includes transcripts from various media reports and publications
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