Police deny ignoring claimed Lynette Dawson sighting

A former police officer has been questioned in court over an alleged “agenda” to prove Chris Dawson murdered his wife.

One of the police officers who investigated Lynette Dawson’s disappearance in the late 1990s has denied he deliberately ignored claims the mother-of-two had been spotted in Sydney, a court has heard.

Chris Dawson, 73, is standing trial in the NSW Supreme Court where he has denied allegations he murdered his wife Lynette and disposed of her body after she went missing from their Sydney northern beaches home in early 1982.

Lynette Dawson never contacted her friends and family after she was last seen on January 8, 1982, leaving behind her two children.

Mr Dawson, a former Newtown Jets player and high school PE teacher, has pleaded not guilty, with his lawyers arguing Ms Dawson rang him several times after she went missing and that she left their marital home of her own volition.

The Crown prosecution alleges he was motivated to kill his wife so he could be with a former student and babysitter, JC, who Mr Dawson married in 1984.

The court has been told that several Dawson family friends and extended family members claimed to have seen Ms Dawson around Sydney and the Central Coast after she vanished.

Chris Dawson (right) has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife and disposing her body in 1982. Picture: NCA NewsWire

“DUDDED”

A now-retired detective who assisted the investigation in 1998 after it was reopened told the court he felt Ms Dawson’s family had been “dudded”.

Former detective sergeant John Prendergast retired from the NSW Police in 2008 and was involved in the renewed investigation into Ms Dawson’s disappearance while he was based out of Dee Why police station.

He expressed his surprise the matter had not been investigated by officers out of Mona Vale station when she first vanished.

“In my view (Ms Dawson’s family) had been dudded by the police,” he said.

The court was told that in the late 1990s, Mr Prendergast began assisting the officer in charge of the renewed investigation, Detective Damian Loone.

He took a statement from JC in September 1998.

He also interviewed Mr Dawson’s brother-in-law, Ross Hutcheon, in 1999.

Chris Dawson with Lynette Dawson, who disappeared in 1982. Picture: Supplied

THE GLADESVILLE SIGHTING

In a police “running sheet” made following the Hutcheon interview, it was stated neither Mr Hutcheon nor his wife Lynette Hutcheon – Mr Dawson’s sister – had been in contact with Lynette Dawson since she went missing.

However, the court was told that Mr Hutcheon - who died six weeks ago - had claimed he saw Lynette Dawson at a bus stop at Gladesville on Sydney’s north shore in mid 1982.

In 2019, during a police interview, Mr Hutcheon said he had told officers in 1999 about his claimed sighting.

“That is wrong; that is absolutely wrong,” Mr Hutcheon said in 2019 when asked why the alleged Gladesville sighting was not mentioned in the police paperwork following his 1999 interview.

However, in the witness box on Wednesday, asked about his record of interview with Mr Hutcheon, Mr Prendergast said there was “nothing missing” from his record of that interview.

“They didn’t give my any information of any sighting of Lynette Dawson,” Mr Prendergast said.

“Because if I had, I would have included it in a running sheet and I would have taken a statement because that would have been first-hand information.”

JC married Chris Dawson following Lynette Dawson’s disappearance. Picture: Supplied

Chris Dawson and JC on their wedding day. Picture: Supplied

THE PHONE TAPS

Under cross examination from Mr Dawson’s barrister, Pauline David, he denied suggestions that the only reason he went to interview Mr and Ms Hutcheon was to spark telephone conversations in the family.

The court heard that at the time police had taps on the phones of Chris Dawson and his brother Paul.

Earlier this week the court was played an intercepted phone call between Chris Dawson and his sister Lynette Hutcheon after she had been interviewed at her Cromer home.

Mr Prendergast denied deliberately omitting information or ignoring avenues of inquiry which may have suggested Lynette Dawson was alive after January 1982.

“I was very much interested in any information after her disappearance, any sightings or information to suggest her whereabouts,” Mr Prendergast said.

The court also heard the opening stages of evidence from Mr Dawson’s former Newtown Jets teammate, Robert Silkman.

Crown prosecutor Craig Everson has previously told the court it’s alleged that Mr Dawson had asked Mr Silkman, during a 1975 Jets team trip, if he “knew someone who could get rid of his wife”.

Ms David has told the court there is not a “scintilla of truth” that Mr Dawson had ever sought to hire a hit man.

Mr Silkman’s evidence will continue on Thursday morning.

THE NEW WITNESSES

Earlier, Justice Ian Harrison told the court he was “inclined” to rule out allowing the prosecution to call a series of witnesses who had come forward in recent weeks.

The Crown prosecution has applied to call evidence from several witnesses who provided statements after the NSW Supreme Court trial began last month.

The court has been told that one woman sent an email to the Director of Public Prosecutions in late May.

Justice Harrison on Wednesday told the court several new statements related to a “girl’s night out” in 1969 and predated anything in the Crown case statement by several years.

Ms David opposed several of the new witnesses being allowed to be called to give evidence.

“This evidence – it’s late,” Justice Harrison said.

“It’s not particularly strong. It’s not particularly well directed … It’s older than everything else in this case by about 10 years.”

Justice Harrison did not hand down a ruling on the matter, but added: “My inclination is to not permit the Crown to call this evidence and to produce a judgment as speedily as I can setting out my reasons for that.”

The court was also told on Wednesday that a further witness had come forward via Crime Stoppers, with Crown prosecutor Craig Everson saying more people had come out of the “woodwork”.

The trial continues.

Originally published as Police deny ignoring claimed Lynette Dawson sighting