Chris Dawson disputes he was ‘desperate’ to move his schoolgirl lover into his house, court hears

Chris Dawson waited a “measured” seven days after his first wife disappeared to drive up to collect his lover to see whether his wife would come home, his counsel has told the Supreme Court.

Accused killer Chris Dawson was not as “desperate” to move his schoolgirl lover into the family home as she has made out, his counsel told the Supreme Court today.

Dawson, 73, did not “race up” to South West Rocks, where the teenager known as JC was holidaying, the day after Lynette Dawson disappeared but waited a “measured” seven days, barrister Pauline David said in her final address to the Supreme Court.

Former teacher Dawson has pleaded not guilty to the murder on January 8 or 9, 1982 of his first wife Lynette who disappeared, aged 33, from their home in Sydney’s northern beaches. He claims she walked out of their marriage, leaving their two daughters behind.

The prosecution alleges Dawson murdered her so he could have an “unfettered” relationship with his young lover, who he met when she was a year 11 student.

Chris Dawson, who has denied murdering his first wife Lynette, is seen arriving at the Supreme Court in Sydney on Thursday. Picture: Seb Haggett

At the time Ms Dawson disappeared, JC was holidaying at South West Rocks with friends.

Ms David said that JC, with whom Dawson later had an acrimonious divorce, had “over time, tailored her evidence to suggest that (Dawson) was a desperate man who pursued her and came racing up to get her”.

She told the court that JC had initially told police that he collected her on January 16 but subsequently gave evidence it was as early as January 10, the day after Dawson claims his wife disappeared after he dropped her at a bus stop.

Lynette and husband Chris Dawson in 1974.

Ms David said that the change in JC’s claims went to her credibility. Dawson told police in 1991 in his only interview with them that he had collected JC on January 16 or 17.

JC has claimed that Dawson called her. Dawson’s case is that she had called him because she was at a caravan park and he could not have therefore have called her.

Ms David said that it was not a case, as the prosecution had alleged, where it was “out with the old, in with the new” as soon as Lynette Dawson disappeared but that Dawson had a more “measured” response to his wife leaving and waited to see if she was coming back.

He did not drive up to South West Rocks until January 16.

Chris Dawson & wife Lynette with twin brother Paul as best man, on their wedding day in 1970.

JC had also changed her story from initially saying she was besotted with Dawson and believed he was the only person who really cared about her to giving evidence that she hadn’t really wanted to return to Sydney with him, Ms David said as the nine-week trial enters its closing stages.

Justice Ian Harrison, who is hearing the trial as a judge sitting alone, raised the question of why Dawson had said in a sworn affidavit to the Family Court in his divorce proceedings from JC that she had become his de facto wife in April 1982 if she had moved in with him in January.

Ms David said it was a “practical aspect” and that their relationship had not been formalised until April.

The trial continues.