Lynette Dawson may have disappeared like Harold Holt, court told

Chris Dawson’s defence counsel said Lynette Dawson, the mother-of-two, may have jumped off a cliff or died at sea, the court has been told.

Former teacher Chris Dawson had the opportunity to “effect the perfect crime” in killing his wife and disposing of her possessions but instead her disappearance may be akin to missing former prime minister Harold Holt, his murder trial was told today.

Dawson’s counsel Pauline David told the Supreme Court in her final address that Lynette Dawson’s 1982 disappearance remains a mystery.

Ms David said she could have created a new life with a new name or may have met with “misadventure” and died or killed herself.

Justice Ian Harrison said it was unusual for someone to take their own life and for their body not to be found: “How would you dispose of your own body?”

Ms David said that Ms Dawson may have jumped off a cliff or died at sea.

Chris Dawson is seen arriving at the Supreme Court in Sydney. He has pleaded guilty t murdering his first wife Lynette in 1982. Picture NCA Newswire/ Gaye Gerard.

“It’s not entirely unknown. Harold Holt went missing. No-one knows where he went,” Ms David said of the former PM who is presumed dead after disappearing while swimming near Portsea in Victoria in 1967.

Dawson, 73, has pleaded not guilty to murdering his first wife who disappeared, aged 33, from their northern beaches home in January 1982.

Chris Dawson with his future wife Lynette, who disappeared aged 33 in 1982.

The former schoolteacher claims she walked out of their marriage, leaving their two daughters behind, but the prosecution alleges he killed her so he could move his young lover, known as JC, who he met when she was in Year 11, into their Bayview home.

Ms David said that it was a “curious aspect” of the case that Ms Dawson had left her possessions including all of her clothes behind when she disappeared but it was inconsistent with her husband having killed her.

If he had the capacity to kill her, dispose of her body and leave no evidence behind in a short period of time, the he also had the capacity to pack a suitcase with some of her clothes, Ms David said.

“Instead he is an open honest man who has left everything exactly as it was, drawers stuffed with clothes,” Ms David said.

“He had the opportunity to effect the perfect crime … she just disappeared.”

She said the Crown had failed to exclude the possibility that Ms Dawson had “disappeared herself”.

The trial continues.