Dawson’s lover asked fortune teller when to leave him, court hears

Chris Dawson’s former schoolgirl lover turned second wife sought out a clairvoyant to ask when she should leave him, a court has heard.

Footy star Chris Dawson’s young wife told friends that a clairvoyant had told her about the best time to leave her husband, his murder trial has heard.

Karen Longhurst, whose in-laws built Dreamworld on the Gold Coast, told the Supreme Court that the woman who had met Dawson as a schoolgirl, known as JC, said she had consulted the clairvoyant as she was planning to leave her allegedly “controlling” husband.

This was in 1990, six years after they married and eight years after he is accused of murdering his wife, Lynette.

Ms Longhurst said she hadn’t asked JC very much about what the clairvoyant said because she didn’t believe “in that” but JC had told her she had planned to leave Dawson in the January and the clairvoyant had said that was a good time.

Chris Dawson arrives at the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney. Picture: Dean Lewins

It comes as the court heard on Tuesday Dawson’s former schoolgirl lover allegedly told a friend, “I think he murdered his first wife”.

It comes as the woman who played Coo-ee The Gumnut Fairy at Dreamworld, Toni Melrose-Mikesa, said Dawson’s second wife, known as JC, made that statement one night before she left for Sydney after JC had separated from Dawson in 1990.

Former PE teacher Chris Dawson, 73, is standing trial for the murder of his first wife Lynette who disappeared aged 33 more than 40 years ago from their home in Sydney’s northern beaches. She was last seen on January 9 1982.

He has pleaded not guilty and claims that Lynette had just walked out of their marriage, leaving their two daughters behind.

The prosecution alleges that Dawson murdered her so he could move JC, who he met when she was a Year 11 student, into their Bayview house. She had been a babysitter for their children.

Ms Melrose-Mikesa said JC stayed with her on the Gold Coast when she had to bring the young daughter she had with Dawson to Queensland to stay with him because of “visitation rights”.

Lynette and Chris Dawson.

Dawson’s young lover, known as JC in a photo tendered to the court.

One night, JC said she was heading back to Sydney the next morning to “go to the police”, Ms Melrose-Mikesa said, giving evidence in the Supreme Court via AVL.

“She said if she didn’t make it, then I was to go to the police and tell them some information she had relayed to me.

“That information she said was that she and Chris had gone to, I’m sure it was a pub because she wasn’t a drinker, and he spoke to a man at the pub.

“(JC) saw (Dawson) hand (the man) an envelope and then a couple of days or a little while later, Lynette disappeared,

“She said I think he murdered his first wife. She said that.”

JC, who married Dawson in 1984 when they moved from Bayview to the Gold Coast, has previously claimed in court that Dawson once drove her in her school uniform over the Sydney Harbour Bridge to a building site and told her afterwards he had planned to hire a hitman to kill his wife.

A photo of Chris Dawson and JC on their wedding day one of several photos that were tendered to court as exhibits in Dawson’s murder trial.

Ms Melrose-Mikesa said the two women became friends after JC brought the daughter she had with Dawson to watch her performances as The Gumnut Fairy at the Gold Coast theme park. They got to know each other during the meet and greet after the shows.

In evidence Justice Ian Harrison allowed to be heard on “voir dire” before making decision about whether it will be admissible in the trial, Ms Melrose-Mikesa claimed JC said that Lynette Dawson, had left her belongings including her wallet behind.

“(JC said) that on her dressing table all the important things she had, jewellery, a wallet and things like that, were all in the same position and just left and she thought that strange.”

Ms Melrose-Mikesa said JC always wore baggy shirts and baggy t-shirts.

“She said that Chris did not like her wearing anything that was too revealing or close fitting,” Ms Melrose-Mikesa told the Supreme Court.

They went on to have lunch together once a week and played indoor cricket in the evening after Dawson had inspected the venue before giving her mission to play.

JC told a friend that she suspected Dawson, pictured with Lynette on their wedding day, had killed his first wife.

Cross-examined by counsel for Dawson, Pauline David, put it to Ms Melsore-Mikesa that it would be usual for someone who, like Dawson, a former PE teacher, had an interest in sport to inspect the venue.

“Could be, yes,” Ms Melrose-Mikesa said.

The Dreamworld wardrobe department went on to make a matching green Gumnut The Fairy costume for the daughter, the woman who played the role from 1983 through to the 2000s, said.

Ms David asked her if she knew that the wardrobe mistress and her husband were friends with Dawson and whether she knew that he had paid for his daughter’s outfit.

“No,” Ms Melrose-Mikesa said to both questions.

Ms David also challenged “hearsay” evidence being given today by some of JC’s Gold Coast friends as the credibility of JC is one of the central points of the trial.

Justice Ian Harrison said that part of JC’s cross-examination by Dawson’s legal team was that she was “making things up”.

Chris Dawson has strongly denied any involvement in his first wife’s disappearance. Picture: Damian Shaw

JC has earlier told the court that she did not want the responsibility of “cooking, cleaning, looking after Lyn’s children who she loved. I wondered where she was”.

A friend, Karen Cook, told the court on Tuesday that while the two daughters born to Dawson and Lyn were “nice and polite”, their step-mother was “not nice back” and appeared to resent them.

On the other hand, JC doted on the daughter she had with Dawson, Ms Cook, who met JC when their chidren went to a Gold Coast pre-school together, said.

“She would roll her eyes when she said she had to go and pick (the two older girls) up,” Ms Cook said.

“JC looked after the children and I sensed there was resentment from comment that she made...she would not speak warmly to the (older) children.”

Ms Cook said she met Dawson while at the couple’s Gold Coast home for dinner with her husband and another couple.
The trial continues before Justice Harrison.