Lynette Joy Simms case ‘kept open’ as Chris Dawson jailed for murder

Lynette Joy Simms was just 33, a gentle and loving mother of two girls, when her life was cut short by her husband and his act of “self-indulgent brutality” in 1982.

“Chris Dawson has had 40 years of freedom, now it’s our turn,” Lynette’s brother Greg Simms said on the steps of the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney on Friday afternoon, surrounded by waiting media.

The family said they wanted to do away with references to Lynette’s marital name which linked her to a man who “discarded her”.

It also honours her parents, Helena and Len Simms, and her older brother Phil, who died without an answer to her disappearance.

Justice Ian Harrison said Lynette was treated by Dawson, the father of her children, as “completely dispensable”. She was “undeserving of her fate”.

He sentenced Dawson, 74, to a maximum 24 years behind bars with a non-parole period of 18 years.

Dawson, wearing a prison-issue dark green tracksuit, turned his chair away from the public gallery and towards the judge for his sentence and showed no obvious reaction to the judgment.

The former teacher, who played rugby league for the Newtown Jets in the 1970s, has been diagnosed with a depressive illness and mild cognitive impairment. He maintains his innocence and will be 92 when he is first eligible for release in August 2040.

“The reality is that he will not live to reach the end of his non-parole period or will alternatively, by reason of his deteriorating cognitive condition and physical capacity, become seriously disabled well before then even if he does,” the judge said.

“I recognise that the unavoidable prospect is that Mr Dawson will probably die in jail.”

In maintaining his innocence, Dawson has expressed no remorse. The judge said he was “highly unlikely ever to reoffend” and had good prospects of rehabilitation.

After an almost five-hour judgment in August, when Dawson was convicted following his judge-alone trial, the sentence was swift. It began at noon on Friday, and was over within 30 minutes.

Greg Simms said: “As far as I’m concerned, today is the last day.”

Despite the introduction of “no body, no parole” laws after Dawson’s conviction, requiring an offender to disclose the location of their victim’s remains for a chance at parole, Simms does not expect the answer to come from Dawson.

“I think the main thing will be if someone comes across a grave or human remains, that will be the only time that we’ll find out through DNA [if] it’s my sister,” he said.

Justice Harrison said the precise way Lynette was killed “is not and cannot be known”, but he was satisfied that Dawson had planned to kill his wife, rather than cause her grievous bodily harm, and did so in a domestic context in their home on Gilwinga Drive at Bayview on the northern beaches.

He found Dawson was motivated by his “desire to be exclusively with” his former student and his daughters’ teenage babysitter, known as JC. The pair had left Sydney in December 1981 to start a new life together in Queensland, but returned by Christmas Day as JC was homesick.

The judge said that by January 2, 1982, JC was “beyond Mr Dawson’s physical reach and control” and “his emotional sway” as she was holidaying 450 kilometres away at South West Rocks.

“The prospect of losing her distressed, frustrated and ultimately overwhelmed Mr Dawson to the point that he resolved to kill his wife,” Justice Harrison said.

He was satisfied that Dawson committed the murder on or about January 8.

“It was neither spontaneous nor unavoidable. It is a crime that should never be permitted to offer the slightest encouragement to any person similarly placed or similarly minded,” the judge said.

“Mr Dawson’s sentence should reflect the disapprobation with which his self-indulgent brutality must be viewed by Australian society. In plain terms, it is not acceptable to take someone’s life merely because they represent an inconvenient impediment to a particular result.”

Dawson claimed he dropped Lynette at a bus stop to go shopping on January 9, and instead of meeting him at Northbridge Baths said she had called to say she “needed time away”, which was rejected by the judge, who found she did not leave her home voluntarily.

NSW Police Homicide Squad Commander Danny Doherty commended Lynette’s family for their “unyielding spirit” and the tenacity of Strike Force Scriven officers who submitted a “compelling” brief of evidence to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in early 2018.

Dawson was charged with murder in December 2018.

“It’s unfinished business. Whilst a chapter is closing, the book’s still open … because we still haven’t found Lyn,” Doherty said.

“While the family, rightly so, want to get on with their lives, we will keep this case open … on the hope we do get information that will be able to provide some dignity to Lyn and let the family lay her to rest.”

Asked whether a further search would be conducted at the property, he said police would “assess any other information and evidence that comes to hand”.

Defence solicitor Greg Walsh had argued Dawson was exposed to “probably the most egregious publicity that one could consider in a context of the criminal law”, as the subject of The Australian’s podcast The Teacher’s Pet, which has amassed tens of millions of downloads internationally.

“His [Dawson’s] major complaint, when properly understood, is that the publicity improperly made assumptions about his guilt at a time when he was entitled to the presumption of innocence,” Justice Harrison said.

“Mr Dawson has now been convicted of the crime which attracted the publicity in question. In those circumstances, as harsh as it may sound to say so, Mr Dawson is now the author of his own misfortune.”

Outside court, Walsh said Friday was his last day on Dawson’s case “for a variety of reasons”, and the 74-year-old would be represented in his appeal by senior public defender Belinda Rigg, SC.

Walsh said: “He [Dawson] knows that he will spend, in all probability, the rest of his days in jail unless he is successful in respect of his appeal.”

Dawson’s maximum term expires in August 2046.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).

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