Judge takes aim at Dawson’s ‘convenient’ claim about diamond ring

Editor’s note: Chris Dawson’s barrister clarified in court a day after this report that the evidence suggested Lynette Simms left her engagement and eternity diamond rings behind, and “there isn’t, in fact, evidence that [she] did not have her wedding ring with her”.

A top judge hearing Chris Dawson’s appeal against his conviction for murdering his wife Lynette has noted the convicted killer’s account involved his spouse “conveniently” leaving her diamond ring behind when he dropped her at a bus stop.

Dawson has asked the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal to overturn his conviction for the murder of Lynette Joy Simms, then 33, who vanished from Sydney’s northern beaches in January 1982. Her body has never been found.

Chris Dawson during his trial; Chris Dawson and Lynette Simms on their wedding day in 1970.Credit: Nick Moir, Supplied

During an interview with NSW Police in January 1991, the former teacher and rugby league player said he dropped Lynette at Mona Vale bus stop early on Saturday, January 9, 1982, so she could go shopping.

He claimed Lynette failed to meet him that afternoon as planned at Northbridge Baths, and instead made a long-distance call to him saying she needed “time away … to sort things out”.

She never returned home, and Dawson claimed he received “similar phone calls from Lyn, more [long-distance] calls” in the following weeks.

Dawson’s three-day hearing before Court of Appeal President Julie Ward and Justices Anthony Payne and Christine Adamson started on Monday.

On Tuesday, Ward put to Dawson’s barrister, senior public defender Belinda Rigg, SC, that, on Dawson’s account, Lynette had “conveniently left her jewellery behind, has she?”

“Sorry, your honour?” Rigg replied.

“She’s left her jewellery behind, has she?” Ward repeated.

“I think that’s the evidence, yes, that there was jewellery left behind,” Rigg said.

“That’s what I mean; so, he drops her at the station not wearing her wedding ring or her engagement ring,” Ward said.

“I think that’s the evidence, yes,” Rigg replied.

Dawson moved his former student and children’s babysitter, known as JC, into the couple’s Bayview home days after the alleged phone call on January 9, his trial heard in 2022. JC turned 18 in February 1982.

JC gave evidence at Dawson’s trial that she observed two diamond rings and clothing among the possessions Lynette left behind. JC married Dawson in January 1984, and they separated in 1990.

“I was allowed to go through Lyn’s clothes and keep anything I wanted,” JC said in her evidence.

JC said her “wedding ring was made from scratch to match his one that he had left over from his first marriage”.

“The diamond ring was made using the diamonds from Lyn’s engagement ring and eternity ring that she left.”

The verdict

NSW Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison found in 2022 that Dawson had killed Lynette, with whom he shared two children, on or about January 8, 1982, and that she had died by the time of the alleged phone call on January 9.

Justice Ian Harrison delivering his verdict in the Chris Dawson murder trial in August 2022.Credit: Nine

He sentenced Dawson to a maximum of 24 years in prison with a non-parole period of 18 years.

Harrison found Dawson killed Lynette “for the selfish and cynical purpose of eliminating the inconvenient obstruction she presented” to a new life with JC.

Dawson’s legal team have identified five grounds of appeal, including that Harrison’s verdict was “unreasonable and unable to be supported” because it was not open on the evidence to be satisfied of Dawson’s guilt.

Dawson’s ‘obsession’

But Brett Hatfield, SC, appearing for the Crown, submitted on Tuesday that “there is not a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted in this case”.

The weight of evidence suggested Lynette was inherently unlikely to abandon the husband she “idolised” and children she “adored”, he said. He noted she referred to Dawson as “Chrissy”.

Hatfield submitted Dawson’s interest in JC was marked by “a degree of desperation and obsession”, along with controlling behaviour, and he was “prepared to take increasing risks” to be with her.

JC told Dawson’s trial “there was a lot of pressure to stay with him, and I was just a child”.

“The account of JC as to the relationship and the nature of it is overwhelmingly strong,” Hatfield submitted.

Hatfield said that on Dawson’s version of events he dropped Lynette at the bus stop at 7am to go shopping.

“They open early,” Ward said dryly.

“Perhaps, yes,” Hatfield replied.

The hearing continues.

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