‘Teacher’s Pet’ cold case breakthrough: Chris Dawson arrested
The first pictures of Chris Dawson’s arrest on the Gold Coast have emerged, as a magistrate denied bail and ordered the Teacher’s Pet murder accused be extradited to NSW.
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FORMER teacher Chris Dawson has been refused bail and will be extradited to NSW over the alleged murder of his wife Lynette almost 37 years ago.
Lynette Dawson’s disappearance has been the subject of The Australian’s Gold Walkley winning podcast The Teacher’s Pet.
BACKGROUND: WHO IS CHRIS DAWSON?
SHANELLE DAWSON ON MUM’S DISAPPEARANCE
Dawson showed no emotion when he appeared in Southport Magistrates Court after being arrested at Biggera Waters on the northern Gold Coast this morning.
Barefoot and wearing a crumpled khaki T-shirt and green shorts, the 70-year-old sat quietly in the dock with his head bowed, occasionally looking up at magistrate Dennis Kinsella.
He had his head in his hands as the magistrate read out the police case, including allegations of domestic violence against his wife.
The court heard Dawson would be charged with murder by NSW police, and bail was opposed by Queensland police because of the seriousness of the alleged offence.
Applying for bail, duty lawyer Rachel Barnes told the court Dawson wanted to go to NSW voluntarily and surrender to police as early as tomorrow.
She said he planned to live with his brother in NSW.
Ms Barnes said Dawson understood the allegations against him were serious, but he was not a flight risk.
“He’s got the capacity to go directly to NSW and surrender himself down there,” she told Mr Kinsella.
Mr Kinsella adjourned the hearing for about 30 minutes to consider bail laws, before rejecting the application.
He said Dawson was an unacceptable risk of failing to appear, and remanded him in the custody of NSW detectives to appear in Parramatta Local Court tomorrow.
Such is the high profile of the case that the Queensland Police Homicide Squad boss Damien Hanson was this morning at Southport Magistrates Court for the extradition hearing.
Mrs Dawson went missing, aged 33, from the family house on Sydney’s northern beaches on January 8, 1982.
The case was the centre of this year's podcast The Teacher’s Pet, run by News Corp Australia’s The Australian, which topped download charts globally and was awarded the 2018 Gold Walkley award.
Just before 8am today, 70-year-old Mr Dawson, from Coolum, was arrested by detectives from the Queensland Police Service’s Homicide Squad.
Mr Fuller said Dawson “came quietly” with police when he was arrested.
He was then taken to the Southport watchhouse. NSW police plan to charge him with murder after extradition.
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller this morning told media that new statements from witnesses were the key to making an arrest.
“Predominately it was statements that helped us to put the pieces of the puzzle together,” Mr Fuller said.
He said two additional statements from witnesses, gained through the media, were beneficial to the investigation.
Police would not say who made the additional statements but said “a number of witnesses will be called” to appear in court.
Addressing the media this morning, Mr Fuller said police would not stop trying to find Lynette’s body but said the case was strong regardless.
“We have solved homicide before without identifying the body,” he said.
“Ideally in this case we will not give up on trying to identify the whereabouts of Lynette
Dawson, but from our perspective, it is not crucial to finalising the matter.”
The brief of evidence has been with the Director of Public Prosecutions in NSW for several months, Mr Fuller said.
Lynette Dawson’s family were advised of today’s arrest this morning, with her brother Greg Simms saying he was “ecstatic, very emotional and teary”.
Coroner findings from two inquests, between 2001-2003, found Lynette was murdered by her husband.
No charges were levelled at Dawson, with the Director of Public Prosecutions ruling there was
insufficient evidence. Mr Dawson has always maintained he is innocent.
In 2015, detectives from the Homicide Squad’s Unsolved Homicide Unit established Strike Force Scriven to re-investigate the circumstances surrounding Mrs Dawson’s disappearance and suspected murder.
Following extensive investigations, Strike Force Scriven detectives requested the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions review their brief of evidence in April 2018.
Earlier this week, the DPP provided advice to police that they had sufficient evidence to charge Dawson, and following further inquiries, detectives applied for an arrest warrant before travelling to the Gold Coast last night.
The development comes after police this year spent in excess of $500,000 on a mammoth forensic search in Bayview, Sydney, in the hope of unearthing clues into Lynette’s disappearance at the family home.
The $2.4 million five-bedroom property at 2 Gilwinga Dr was owned by Chris Dawson and his former wife when she went missing.
At the time of Mrs Dawson’s disappearance the couple lived at the home with their two daughters aged four and two.
Mr Dawson was a sports teacher at Cromer High and was having an affair with pupil Joanne Curtis, which started when she was 16, when Mrs Dawson disappeared.
Miss Curtis had become the family’s babysitter.
The Dawsons had built the family home with the help of money lent to them by Mrs Dawson’s parents.
In the 1970s Mr Dawson was a professional footy player with the Newtown Jets in the New South Wales Rugby League, playing alongside his twin brother, Paul Dawson.
Mr Dawson was also a part-time model for jeans and corn chips during his playing days.
He and his twin brother Paul were well known in the northern beaches of Sydney.
It was following his retirement from professional footy in the late 1970s, that Mr Dawson became a physical education teacher at Cromer High School.
Earlier this year Sherryn Dawson, one of Chris and Lyn’s daughters, defended her father, calling the Teacher’s Pet podcast a “witch hunt”.
Following today’s arrest Lynette Dawson’s brother Greg Simms told The Daily Telegraph: “I’m the happiest man alive today and if Lynette is up there looking down, she’d be smiling at us.
“I am ecstatic, very emotional and teary.
“This was our last chance with the DPP…
“I’m just so relieved, I want to find out every detail of what happened to my sister, every minute detail. It’s been years and finally we might get closure.”
Originally published as ‘Teacher’s Pet’ cold case breakthrough: Chris Dawson arrested
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