Chris Dawson murder trial: Lynette Dawson’s mum kept diary of weeks before disappearance

Quotes from the diaries of Lynette Dawson’s mother Helena Simms have been read aloud in court, detailing comments Chris Dawson allegedly made just weeks before his wife disappeared.

Alleged murderer Christopher Dawson described his wife Lynette as “being in the kitchen where she belongs” just weeks before she disappeared from the northern beaches more than 40 years ago, a court has heard.

Dawson, 73, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Lynette who disappeared in January 1982, aged 33.

Crown prosecutor Craig Everson read to the court the diaries of Lynette Dawson’s mother Helena Simms, which detailed how her son-in-law had left his marriage and briefly returned to their Bayview home just after Christmas of 1981 before Lynette went missing in January 1982.

In those, she described one scene at her Clovelly home when Dawson and his wife visited with their children playing in the lounge room as Christopher Dawson watched on.

“Chris said again, ‘I only want to look after my two little girls’ — I said ‘what about Lyn?’ He said: “She’s in the kitchen where she belongs!!”.

Christopher Dawson outside the Supreme Court in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dylan Coker

Other sections of the diaries read out in court included recounts of conversations with her daughter who did not like the presence of the 16-year-old babysitter in her home. Dawson, who taught at the high school the girl attended, was having sex with the teenager and had fled to Queensland with the babysitter, the court had previously heard.

Lynette Dawson’s sister Patricia Jenkins told the court Lynette was very distressed during a telephone call during that episode after she discovered her husband had abandoned her and two young daughters.

“She was speaking very quickly, she was very upset, she was breathing heavily,” she told the court.

According to Ms Jenkins, Dawson had been due to pick up Lynette from the shopping centre at an agreed time but never turned up. She took a taxi back to her house where she found Dawson had taken his clothes, his pillow and left a note on the bed for her.

“She only told me it said ‘don’t paint too dark a picture of me to the girls’,” Ms Jenkins told the court.

Dawson returned to the family home after Christmas. Lynette Dawson was missing by January.

Lynette Dawson’s brother Greg Simms at the Supreme Court in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dylan Coker

Under questioning from Dawson’s barrister Pauline David, Ms Jenkins was asked if she had told police if Ms Dawson could have left voluntarily because Christopher Dawson drove her away.

Ms Jenkins replied: “That was a possibility … I believe I said (after that), ‘or something more sinister could have happened.”

Lynette’s younger brother Greg Simms said months after Lynette’s disappearance, Dawson arrived at his mothers house in Clovelly with green garbage bags filled with Lynette’s clothes — including a pair of pink shorts.

Mr Simms said the missing person’s report submitted by Dawson stated she was wearing a pair of pink shorts when she went missing. He said she had a large 7.5cm scar on her leg and she did not normally wear shorts unless she was going to the beach.

He also noted that Christopher Dawson was colourblind.

Under questioning by the defence barrister Pauline David, he said he did not know how many pairs of pink shorts his sister Lynette owned.

In the same bag of clothes, Mr Simms said they also found a document in a dressing gown pocket which was entitled ‘Sales inspection report and selling agency agreement’. Mr Simms said his sister had previously expressed dismay with a proposal by Dawson to sell their large house at Bayview.

“Prior to this she had mentioned that she had refused to sign it,” he said.

Defence Prosecutor Pauline David asked him if he was lying — which he denied.

“It is something that you have made up subsequently in more recent times,” she said.

He replied: “That is incorrect.”

The trial before Justice Ian Harrison continues.