Chris Dawson’s twin’s wild claim about babysitter in recorded phone call

Tapped phone calls exposed furious conversations between the Dawson twins after Lyn’s death, including a wild claim about the teen babysitter Chris married.

An intercepted phone call between Chris Dawson and his twin, Paul, revealed an astonishing claim about the teen babysitter his brother married after his first wife’s disappearance.

On Tuesday, Dawson was found guilty of murdering Lynette Dawson in 1982, 40 years after she vanished from their home on Sydney’s northern beaches.

Justice Ian Harrison found the 74-year-old had “resolved to kill his wife” after becoming “infatuated” with his student and teen babysitter, known as JC, whom he later married.

Dawson was led from the courtroom in handcuffs and, on Thursday, his lawyer revealed he would not be applying for bail. He is currently being held in Silverwater Prison, with his sentencing date set for November 11.

Dawson was subject to years of police investigations following Lyn’s disappearance, and one of the tools used was a police wire tap on his phone.

Recordings of his calls were played in court during the murder trial, with one such recording focusing on a furious conversation between him and Paul.

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Chris Dawson (R) and his brother Paul Dawson.

In the 2013 call, Paul claimed JC was a “prime suspect” in Lyn’s murder, telling his brother that she had “more to gain than you”.

He then pointed to JC walking out on the marriage “five years later with $100,000”.

Police intercepted Dawson’s phone calls, with many being to his twin, between 1999 and 2018.

In many of the calls, Dawson complained about the unfairness of the accusations being levelled at him and all the media attention the case was receiving.

In an October 2018 call, Dawson said, if it hadn’t happened to him, “I wouldn’t believe that the media can lie so easily”.

In one conversation, Dawson described the media coverage as “bulls**t, bulls**t, bulls**t”, before raging against Hedley Thomas over his Teacher’s Pet Podcast.

During the conversation, Dawson repeats that he knows his phone is tapped, before seemingly directly addressing Thomas.

“Hedley you’re a f***ing weak c**t. You’re a w**ker,” he said.

“What a load of bulls**t. Hedley set himself up as prosecutor, judge and jury.”

Paul Dawson claimed JC was a ‘prime suspect’ in Lyn’s disappearance.

Paul claimed the former babysitter left with $100,000 after her marriage to Chris broke down.

JC fronted the NSW Supreme Court during Dawson’s murder trial. Picture: Damian Shaw/NCA NewsWire

‘There are things I could say, but I won’t’

In one call, the retired teacher claimed Lyn’s family wanted him to be found “guilty of murdering their sister”, claiming they “want someone to blame”.

“Hedley made a frigging fortune … his whole motivation is to make more money and make it sensational and a sex scandal.”

Dawson noted that police were planning to dig up the Bayview house where he lived with Lyn at the time of her disappearance.

He questioned why he was getting “more concentration that Karl Stefanovic’s marriage break-up or that politician … Barnaby Joyce”.

In a call on August 2018 to a relative, Dawson said, “There are things I could say, but I won’t”, after acknowledging his calls were being monitored.

He said there was “so much bulls**t” that had been “printed and made out to be true”.

“Who knows what people do?” he said.

“I don’t see why I’ve got to have all the answers.”

Dawson said his marriage to Lynette “broke up” and she “took off”.

In another call between Dawson and his twin in 1999, Paul complained about the “stupid questions” police had asked him during an interview, branding the experience “f***ing horrible”.

Chris and Paul Dawson during an episode of ABC’s Chequerboard program.

Paul said the detectives questioned him about renovations he had done to his home in Bayview, where he used to live just a few doors up from his brother.

He also claimed the cops asked him about his movements around the time of Lyn’s disappearance, her bank cards and insurance policies.

“He implied that something has happened to Lyn and you had the motive,” Paul said on the call.

Dawson explained the police “think something has happened to Lyn and I had the motive”.

He said they were going to search the Bayview property where he formerly lived and “do all sorts of things”.

On September 6, 2018, Dawson made a call to his twin after a Daily Mail article included photos of JC and their daughter.

He said it was “p***ing me off how they’re harassing our family” before ranting about his ex-wife and what she had said about him to the media.

Dawson said JC had done the “usual victim thing” and showed “cruelty” when describing their life together.

Chris Dawson and Lynette on their wedding day.

Strange claims in police interview

During the trial, a police interview between Dawson and two detectives in Beenleigh, south of Brisbane, was played in court for the first time.

In the clip, the former professional footballer made a number of claims that, in light of the NSW Supreme Court decision, are particularly unsettling.

In the video, filmed on January 15, 1991, Dawson, dressed in a white T-shirt, is seen sitting across from the detectives with his lawyer Pauline David – who was also his barrister during his trial.

Over the course of the one hour interview, Dawson recounted the days leading up to Lyn’s disappearance, even claiming he had spoken to her on the phone several times after she left their family home.

He told police they had been having marital problems in the lead up to her disappearance but had gone to counselling and believed “things were going to work out”.

Chris Dawson during an interview with the police in 1991.

Mr Dawson claimed the last time he saw his first wife was when he dropped her off at Mona Vale bus stop on the morning of January 9, 1982.

He told police the first phone call he received from Lyn was that afternoon at the Northbridge Baths, where he was working part-time as a lifeguard.

He said she told him “she needed time away” and “she’d ring me in a few days’ time after she’d had time to sort things out”.

“The following few weeks I had similar phone calls from Lyn, more STD calls saying that she needed extra time,” Dawson said during the police interview.

“Then after about the third phone call she said she ‘needed a lot more time’, she didn’t know if she would be returning to me.”

During the interview, Dawson admitted it was “extremely strange” that she only contacted him and not any of her family or friends.

However, during his sentencing, Justice Ian Harrison branded Dawson’s claim that Lyn called him at Northbridge Baths a “lie” and said his descriptions of the phone calls were “lacking in context”.

“I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Lynette Dawson never telephoned Mr Dawson after 8 January, 1982,” Justice Harrison said.

“That reinforces other circumstantial evidence that leads me to conclude that Lynette Dawson did not leave her home voluntarily.”