How Chris Dawson explained his wife’s disappearance to police

Chris Dawson told police he had spoken to his wife several times since her disappearance in an interview released by the Supreme Court.

Chris Dawson had several phone calls with his wife Lynette Dawson after she went missing and enlisted friends in the police to unravel the mystery, a court has heard.

In a never-before-seen police interview between Mr Dawson and detectives, which was released by the NSW Supreme Court on Monday, the former rugby league player gave his version of Lynette’s vanishing from their Sydney northern beaches home 40 years ago.

The interview was conducted in January 1991 at Beenleigh Station in Queensland, where Mr Dawson was living at the time and working at a Gold Coast high school.

Mr Dawson is standing trial, accused of murdering his wife so he could pursue a relationship with a teenage former student and babysitter, who can only be known as JC.

Chris Dawson (second from the right) during a police interview in January 1991. Picture: Supplied.

He has pleaded not guilty and during the interview, Mr Dawson made several key claims and statements to Detective Sergeant Paul Mayger including;

*He described allegations, made by JC, that he had attempted to hire a hitman before changing his mind as a “complete and utter fabrication”.

*The day before Lynette went missing she had an “emotional breakdown” during which she threw her daughter “onto the bed”.

*Just prior to Lynette going missing, they had gone to marriage counselling but had left “holding hands”

*A friend had told him he had seen Lynette in a car on the Central Coast.

Chris Dawson has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife Lynette in 1982. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw.

Asked to explain the events which surrounded Ms Dawson’s disappearance, he noted the couple had been experiencing matrimonial problems.

He said around the same time they began marriage counselling, Lynette began talking to a tradesman at their Bayview house who was “tied up to some religious sect”.

“Lyn sought some comfort from him, so far as he was asking her to come along to the meetings and getting her literature,” Mr Dawson said.

Chris Dawson and Lynette Dawson prior to her disappearance. Picture: Supplied

Ms Dawson was last seen on January 8, 1982 – her body has not been found and she has not contacted friends or relatives since.

Mr Dawson told detectives he dropped Lynette off at a Mona Vale bus stop and had made plans to meet her in the afternoon at the Northbridge Baths, where he had a part-time job, after she had gone shopping.

He said his wife failed to arrive and he received a phone call from her midway through his shift.

“The girl that worked in the shop called me over and said there was an STD phone call for me, she had taken the call,” Mr Dawson said.

“I went there, took the phone call, it was Lyn. She said she needed time away like I had had prior to that day. And she’d ring me in a few days’ time after she’d had time to sort things out.”

The court has heard that just prior to Christmas 1981, Mr Dawson and JC had attempted to drive north to Queensland to start a new life.

JC with Chris Dawson following Lynette’s disappearance. Picture: Supplied

However, JC told the court that before arriving in the Sunshine State she had asked for the car to be turned around because she missed her family.

“The following few weeks I had similar phone calls from Lyn, more STD calls saying that she needed extra time, that she needed more time to sort it out,” Mr Dawson said.

He said after about the third call, Lynette said she would not be coming home to him and their two children.

He said he enlisted friends in the NSW Police to help him locate her, and that Lynette’s own brother, also a police officer, was making inquiries.

“For the remaining period after 12 months I was constantly in touch with the people I just mentioned to try and find and locate where Lyn was,” he said.

The trial continues.