Recording of first police interview with Dawson played in court
The original police recording of alleged murderer Chris Dawson being interviewed about his wife’s disappearance has been played in the Supreme Court.
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The original police recording of alleged murderer Chris Dawson being interviewed about his wife’s disappearance has been played in the Supreme Court.
Dawson, now 73, is standing trial for the murder of his first wife Lynette who disappeared in January 1982 from the northern beaches. He has pleaded not guilty.
The court had previously heard how former PE teacher Dawson embarked on a secret relationship with a Year 11 student, known as JC for legal reasons, who he also hired to be a babysitter and had sex with at his home.
After Lynette disappeared, she moved into the family’s Bayview home on the northern beaches, looked after Lynette’s children before she married Dawson herself in 1984 and the pair moved to Queensland.
The court had previously heard of Dawson’s violent outbursts in which he once ripped a G-string off his second wife in a rage before the marriage ended in 1990.
His second wife, in the heat of a custody battle, aired her suspicions that Lynette had been murdered.
In the police interview on 15 January 1991, Chris Dawson told police his account of exactly what happened on January 9, 1982 after they had gone to see a marriage counsellor.
In the grainy video played to the court, Dawson was dressed in an oversized white T-shirt and sat next to his solicitor Pauline David, who is now his defence barrister in the trial.
Asked about the events which occurred when his wife’s went missing, he told police there had been “some guy” who was part of a “religious sect” who was “asking her to come along to the meetings” and gave her “literature” on it.
The Saturday she disappeared Dawson said he dropped her at a bus stop in Mona Vale and arranged to meet her at Northbridge Baths in the afternoon where he had a part-time job as a lifesaver.
She never turned up. He said he received an “STD phone call” to the pool in which Lynette said “she said she needed time … and she would ring me in a few days time”.
He said she told him in a subsequent phone call that she needed a lot more time.
Dawson told police there had been sightings of her on the Central Coast and he had also heard a “whisper” from a friend called Ian Kennedy at a school reunion that she was residing in New Zealand.
The police officer said: “I have spoken to Ian Kennedy about that … I am not saying it didn’t take place but Ian has no knowledge of it.”
Dawson said: “He was intoxicated”.
Earlier on Wednesday, the court heard how the sister of a teenager who Dawson was having an affair with was taunted by other children about the teacher-student relationship with the 1980 Police song “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” which included lyrics like “Young teacher, subject of schoolgirl fantasy.”
“I was taunted … by some girls at school,” she told the court.
Another friend of the babysitter, Kate Lester, said she believed Lynette had been murdered because when she moved into the Bayview home following Lynette’s disappearance, all her rings were in a bowl on the dresser.
“She said it was weird that all her rings were in a bowl on the dressing table,” she told the court. She felt that Lyn had been murdered.”
The trial continues.
‘HE COULD EASILY HAVE KILLED ME’: LYNETTE
Lynette Dawson confided in a co-worker that her husband Chris had pushed her face into the mud next to the backyard swimming pool and held her face down in it as she “gasped” for air, a court has heard.
Chris Dawson, 73, is standing trial for the murder of his first wife Lynette who disappeared more than 40 years ago and was last seen on January 9 1982. He has pleaded not guilty.
Former co-worker Anna Grantham told the court she immediately struck up a friendship with Lynette when she first met her at the council-run childcare centre in Warriewood.
She sometimes saw her outside work with Lynette’s children and one weekend organised to sell some of their items at a car boot sale at Elanora Heights to make some cash.
“At the end of the market, Chris came to pick her up in the car with the two little girls … He appeared to be very agitated and angry and aggressive towards Lyn,” she told the court.
The next time she saw Lynette at work, Ms Grantham asked her about the violent incident and she opened up about her marriage.
“She said one day we were having a fight around the pool,” she said.
“She said he grabbed her by the back of her hair and pressed her on the floor into the mud … on her face.
“I just reacted, ‘oh my god he could have killed you’ … she said ‘yes he could easily have killed me’.”
Ms Dawson disappeared sometime later at the beginning of January 1982. The court had previously heard Chris Dawson had then asked a high school student he had been having an affair with to live in the house and cook and clean for Lynette’s two children.
Chris Dawson called the childcare centre to let them know Lynette was not going to turn up for work. He told her boss Barbara Cruise that she had told him she needed some “time out”.
Ms Grantham said once she disappeared they wondered where she had gone.
Fellow childcare worker Annette Leary gave evidence to the court earlier on Tuesday.
She had been with Ms Grantham when she ran into Chris Dawson at Warriewood shopping Centre. She said he told her she had heard from Lynette and said she was in Queensland. “He also told me he had a letter,” she said.
That was later challenged by Dawson’s defence barrister Pauline David who suggested he had not said there was any letter but a phone call instead. “Is it possible you were confused about exactly what he said?”
“No. It was a very trying time, at the time having her disappear and worrying about her and wondering what had happened to her, it is something that would stick in your mind. It stuck in my mind.”
She had previously told the court that Lynette had told her that Dawson had grabbed the throat of his wife Lyn on the way to marriage counselling days before she disappeared and said “if this doesn’t work, I am getting rid of you”.
The trial continues.
‘IF THIS DOESN’T WORK, I’M GETTING RID OF YOU’
Alleged murderer Chris Dawson grabbed the throat of his wife Lyn on the way to marriage counselling days before she disappeared and said “if this doesn’t work, I am getting rid of you”, a court has heard.
Dawson, 73, is standing trial for the murder of first wife Lynette Dawson who was last seen alive on January 9 1982, more than 40 years ago. He has pleaded not guilty.
Lynette’s former co-worker at a childcare centre Annette Leary told the court she noticed extensive bruising on her neck while she was changing a nappy.
“She said they were having a little trouble in the marriage and she had talked Chris into going to a marriage counsellor to see if they could resolve it,” she said.
“One day when I came into work and she was already there, she had bruises on her throat and I just said oh ‘what happened to your throat?’.
“She told me that … They got in a lift to go up to marriage counselling and he had gripped her by the throat and shook her and just said ‘I am only doing this once and if it doesn’t work, I am getting rid of you.”
Ms Leary said she did not believe Mrs Dawson thought the threat was serious in the hours after it happened.
Lyn never turned up to her next shift the following Monday. When she did not turn up to work the director of the childcare centre Barbara Cruise asked Ms Leary to fill in.
The court had earlier on Monday heard from Ms Cruise about how Lynette had confided in her about a marriage breakdown in the months before she went missing — and the phone call from Chris Dawson saying that Lynette was gone because she needed a break.
“My recollection is, he had a phone call from Lyn (saying) she had gone away, she needed some time out, and at that stage she didn’t know when she would be coming back,” she said.
Under cross examination, she was asked by defence barrister Pauline David if Ms Leary had recalled making a statement to police saying Lynette had said her children would be “better off” with Chris Dawson.
She read from the statement: “She had certainly lost her self esteem, she thought Chris was an excellent father and that, umm, you know, the kids would be maybe better off with Chris than with her”.
“She did say that,” Ms Cruise said.
The court heard evidence from the babysitter who moved into Chris Dawson’s home just days after his wife disappeared.
She and Dawson married three years later in 1984, had relocated to Queensland, before she left the marriage.
Defence barrister Pauline David presented letters written by Dawson to his wife at the time of their marriage breakdown in 1990 showing the union had been “affectionate”.
The former babysitter did not agree.
“This is absolute garbage, this has been written like an essay, that’s what it seems like to me. It is trying to convince me that he is the only one for me and I should come back,” she told the court. “And that is desperation at (its) height.”
The trial before Justice Ian Harrison in the NSW Supreme Court continues.
BABYSITTER SAYS DAWSON WAS ‘FRIGHTENING’
The teenage babysitter earlier told the court that during her marriage she was the victim of domestic violence including one incident in which he ripped off a G-string she was “parading” for him.
JC previously told the court Mr Dawson had become angry when he told her to only wear the underwear in front of him, describing the incident as “frightening”.
Under cross examination from Mr Dawson’s barrister, Pauline David, on Monday morning, JC denied the incident was nonviolent.
“There was an incident with a G-string that involved Mr Dawson pulling it from the back in the context of you mucking around,” Ms David said.
“No,” JC replied.
“There was no violence associated with any G-string incident,” Ms David said.
“There was, I was there,” JC said.
JC and Mr Dawson attempted to run off to Queensland to start a new life shortly before Christmas in 1981, only to turn around when she became ill and asked that he drive her back to Sydney.
In early 1982, she travelled to South West Rocks to holiday with friends and family, however she says she kept in daily phone contact with Mr Dawson.
She said during one call he told her “Lyn’s gone, she’s not coming back” before he drove up to the NSW Mid North Coast to collect her to take her back to Sydney’s north shore.
JC has told the court she was driven back to Sydney on or about January 10, 11 or 12.
Ms Dawson disappeared on January 9, after she was dropped off at a Mona Vale bus stop by Mr Dawson.
Ms David questioned whether JC had initially moved back in with her mother before she went to live at Mr Dawson’s home at Gilwinga Drive.
“I want to suggest part of that process was moving back into your mother’s place … And that there was some discussion before that actually occurred,” Ms David said.
“There was not,” JC said.
“He came up to get me to install me into his place to look after his children and take care of the cooking and cleaning et cetera because he told me his wife was not coming back.”
BABYSITTER SEEN TOPLESS IN G-STRING
The babysitter who moved into the home of Christopher Dawson just days after the disappearance of his wife Lynette walked around their northern beaches house wearing a G-string and nothing else, a murder trial has heard.
Mr Dawson, 73, is standing trial in the NSW Supreme Court over the alleged murder of his wife Lynette after her disappearance in January 1982.
Under questioning from crown prosecutor Craig Everson, Bayview neighbour Julie Andrew said the last day she had been in contact with Lynette Dawson was after she had witnessed Mr Dawson “bellowing” at Lynette.
She had been hanging out washing about 11.30am on a school day in 1981 when she heard “wailing” coming from the Dawson property and she went to investigate. From her pool she could see the pair standing next to a trampoline.
“He was towering over her, he had at least one hand on her shoulder,” she told the court.
“She said something like ‘what are you doing to us Chris’?”
Ms Andrew said she later telephoned Lynette to check on her after observing the incident.
“She didn’t say a lot,” Ms Andrew told the court. She later went up to the Dawson house for a cup of tea and said Lynette was putting on a “brave front”.
She asked Lynette what the incident was about and she revealed that Mr Dawson had wanted their babysitter JC to move in with them.
“I said, you can’t let her live here, this is your house,” Ms Andrew said.
Ms Andrew said during that conversation over a cup of tea Lynette Dawson had become defensive about the alleged extramarital affair. Ms Andrew described herself as a woman not normally prone to swearing but said she needed to “shake her up”.
“I said, Lyn you can’t have her move in here, he’s f---ing the babysitter.”
Ms Andrew also told the court she had seen JC around their house topless.
“She was wearing a G-string bikini bottom,” she said.
In January 1982 she could hear Ms Dawson’s children playing in the pool in the days after her disappearance and could hear babysitter JC, Christopher Dawson and his children playing and not Lynette.
“I saw (JC) there and I could hear children in the pool laughing, I could hear Chris’s voice and (JC) was there, so I was thinking ‘where’s Lyn?’”
“I thought maybe she had gone to her mum and dad’s for a couple of days,” she said.
Defence barrister Pauline David asked Ms Andrew if she had come to the court with the intention of portraying Chris Dawson in the “most monstrous manner you possibly can”.
Ms Andrew said: “I have come to tell the truth”.
Earlier, the defence barrister refuted earlier allegations made in the prosecution’s opening statement that Mr Dawson had tried to hire a hit man to kill her after discovering she would have difficulty conceiving children.
“Christopher Dawson, the accused, did not kill Lynette Dawson,” Ms David said.
“He may have failed her as a husband, but he did not kill her.”
She said there were numerous sightings of Ms Dawson, including at Gladesville Hospital and Macquarie St in Sydney’s CBD, some of which had not been fully investigated by police in the years after her January 1982 disappearance.
CHRIS DAWSON ADMITS ‘FAILING’ WIFE
Former rugby league player and teacher Christopher Dawson may have failed his former wife Lynette but did not kill her or dispose of her body, a court has heard.
Mr Dawson, 73, is standing trial in the NSW Supreme Court where he has pleaded not guilty to murdering Lynette, who disappeared from their home on Sydney’s northern beaches 40 years ago.
The 33-year-old went missing from the family’s house at Bayview in January 1982, leaving behind her two beloved young children.
The crown prosecution has contended there was “animosity” in the relationship over their inability to have children around the same time as Mr Dawson’s twin brother Paul.
The crown has also alleged that while on a trip with Newtown Jets teammates in October 1975, Mr Dawson asked Robert Silkman if he “knew someone who could get rid of his wife”.
Prosecutor Craig Everson said Mr Silkman “had some admitted criminal connections”.
During her opening address on Monday morning, defence barrister Pauline David told the court there was not a “scintilla of truth” to the claim that Mr Dawson attempted to hire a hit man.
“The defence position is there is not a scintilla of truth to the suggestion that the accused approached Mr Silkman, or any other person, at any time because he was motivated in any way to get rid of his wife Lynette Dawson,” she said.
“It is a suggestion that is emphatically and utterly denied.”
The court has heard that Mr Dawson developed a sexual relationship which a student where he was a teacher and repeatedly asked the girl to marry him.
In December 1981, Mr Dawson left his family to move to Queensland with the student to “start a new life”.
However, the pair returned to Sydney just four days later.
The court heard on the day of her disappearance, Mr Dawson dropped Lynette off at a bus stop at Mona Vale.
She was due to meet her husband, mother and children at the Northbridge Baths later that day but never arrived.
Mr Dawson’s defence said a staff member at the bath’s kiosk notified him of a phone call.
He has claimed during the call Lynette told him she wouldn’t be returning and he was observed to be “shaken” by the conversation.
The crown has alleged on or about January 9, 1982 Mr Dawson murdered Lynette Dawson and disposed of her body, which has never been found.
Mr Everson has claimed Mr Dawson was motivated to kill Lynette by his desire to run off with his student.
The court has heard a week after Lynette disappeared, Dawson drove to the NSW Mid North Coast to pick up the young woman and brought her back to his matrimonial Bayview home.
He told her Lynette was “gone” and not coming back, the crown has alleged.
But Ms David said there was evidence Lynette may have been alive after her disappearance.
She criticised the police investigation at the time, saying some leads were ignored or not followed up.
“Christopher Dawson, the accused, did not kill Lynette Dawson,” Ms David said.
“He may have failed her as a husband, but he did not kill her.”
She said there had been many “failures” in the police investigation, some of them “deliberate”.
“It is the very lack of investigation, the defence say, that the accused is here today,” she said.
“It is the very lack of investigation that has caused the great prejudice to this accused over many years.”
She said there had been several sightings of her, including at the Gladesville Hospital, on Sydney’s lower North Shore.
DAWSON ‘TRIED TO HIRE HIT MAN’, TRIAL HEARS
Accused killer Chris Dawson emerged from the Supreme Court in Sydney during the first day of his murder trial and indicated he was pleased proceedings had begun.
Asked by media outside court if he was happy the trial is finally underway now, a demure Dawson simply said: “yes”.
The 73-year-old, who flew down from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast on Sunday night, was flanked by his brother Paul as emerged from the judge-alone trial.
He was asked numerous questions by waiting media but, after expressing his relief, remained silent.
Inside, the court heard footballer turned high-school teacher Chris Dawson allegedly wanted to hire a hit man to murder his wife Lynette after the couple was unable to have children early in their marriage.
All details in the trial can be revealed after Judge Ian Harrison rejected an application from lawyers for both the defence and crown to have the case suppressed under blanket non-publication orders.
Lawyers on Monday applied to have the entire trial, including the verdict, suppressed and argued the reporting could prejudice further court proceedings in the coming months.
The judge-alone trial is expected to go for a maximum of six weeks where Crown Prosecutor Craig Everson SC will allege the former Newtown Jets rugby league player and schoolteacher killed Lynette, who vanished in January 1982.
The 33-year-old disappeared from the family’s home at Bayview, on Sydney’s northern beaches, leaving behind her two beloved young children.
In his opening address, Mr Everson told the court the couple were both just 21 when they got married in 1970 but were not able to have children around the same time as Mr Dawson’s twin brother, Paul.
This caused a “level of animosity” from Mr Dawson to his wife, Mr Everson said.
On the way home from a trip to the Gold Coast with his teammates from the Newtown Jets in October 1975, Mr Dawson allegedly asked Robert Silkman if he “knew someone who could get rid of his wife.
Mr Everson told the court Mr Silkman “had some admitted criminal connections”.
Five years later, the court heard Mr Dawson developed a sexual relationship with a student at the high school where he was a teacher and he became “infatuated with her”, the court heard.
“He repeatedly asked her to marry him,” Mr Everson said.
In December 1981, the court heard Mr Dawson valued the house he shared with Lynette at Bayview before the next day leaving his family and moving to Queensland with the student to “start a new life”.
The pair returned to Sydney just four days later.
The court heard the student ended the relationship in December 1981 and Mr Dawson begged her to call him as she went on holiday with friends the following month.
“The Crown alleges that on or about the 8th of January 1982 the accused alone or with the involvement of another person murdered Lynette Dawson,” Mr Everson told the court.
“Then later he disposed of her body at an unknown location.”
It is the Crown case that Mr Dawson was “motivated to kill Lynette” by his desire to have a relationship with the student.
A week later he brought the student back to his house and told her “Lynette was gone and wouldn’t be coming back”, the court heard.
However, Mr Dawson allegedly told friends and family his wife had left him with the children and had called him a few times, before reporting her missing six weeks later.
Mr Everson told the court the student is expected to give evidence that Mr Dawson told her he contemplated getting a hit man against his wife, but “decided against it because innocent people would be hurt”.
The court heard Lynette was a “loving mother” who left two young children.
The trial will continue in front of Judge Harrison on Wednesday.
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