‘That’s definitely Lyn Dawson’: Brother-in-law’s regret over sighting

Chris Dawson’s brother-in-law has told a court he saw Lynette Dawson several months after she went missing from her Sydney home.

Two of Chris Dawson’s extended family reported seeing Lynette Dawson around Sydney following the mother-of-two’s disappearance, including outside a hospital just months after she went missing, a court has heard.

Mr Dawson, 73, is standing trial in the NSW Supreme Court, accused of murdering his wife Lynette Dawson and disposing of her body 40 years ago.

The Crown prosecution alleges the former teacher and rugby league player was motivated to kill Lynette so he could have an “unfettered” relationship with JC, a former student and babysitter, who he later married.

Mr Dawson has pleaded not guilty, with his defence arguing he had no reason to kill Ms Dawson and that she phoned him several times shortly after she was last seen on January 8, 1982.

The court was told last week that three Dawson family friends had seen Ms Dawson after she last contacted her family.

And Justice Ian Harrison was on Tuesday told of another two claimed sightings by Mr Dawson’s extended family.

Chris Dawson has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Justice Harrison, who is hearing the judge-alone trial, was told that Mr Dawson’s brother-in-law, Ross Hutcheon, said he had seen Ms Dawson about three to six months after she had disappeared.

Mr Hutcheon was married to Mr Dawson’s sister, also named Lynette.

The court was told that Mr Hutcheon had died; however, the court was played recordings of a 2019 police interview and his evidence in the Downing Centre Local Court from 2020.

Mr Hutcheon told the court two years ago that he was driving along Victoria Rd at Gladesville, on Sydney’s lower north shore, when he spotted a woman he said was Ms Dawson.

“I immediately recognised her as Lyn Dawson,” Mr Hutcheon told the court at the time.

“I also noted at the time that to my left was Gladesville Hospital. Lyn was a nurse, I put the two together. Lyn standing outside the hospital where I assume she was working.

“So then I said to myself, ‘Yes, that’s definitely Lyn Dawson.’”

Chris and Lynette Dawson in 1965. Picture: Supplied

JC and Chris Dawson on their wedding day. Picture: Supplied

Mr Hutcheon said he was familiar with Ms Dawson and her appearance, with Mr Dawson and his wife having lived with him for several months while their home was being built.

The court was told that when Ms Dawson went missing, Mr Hutcheon was told by family members that she had walked out on Chris and her two young daughters.

He said that when he sighted her in mid-1982, he did a U-turn and went back to the bus stop; however, in the approximately three minutes it took him to return, she had gone.

Mr Hutcheon did not appear at either of the inquests into Ms Dawson’s disappearance and gave a statement to police at his Cromer home in 1999.

On a police running sheet made following the 1999 interview, it noted that neither Mr Hutcheon nor his wife had been in contact with Ms Dawson since 1982.

However, during his 2019 interview with police he said it had been omitted and that he had told the police of his claimed sighting 20 years prior.

“That is wrong. That is absolutely wrong,” Mr Hutcheon said.

Mr Hutcheon told the court in 2020 that he made a “very, very, very big mistake” by not telling more people about the claimed sighting sooner.

He emailed his brother Peter – a solicitor – about the Gladesville sighting after Mr Dawson had been charged.

“I thought it was about time I spoke up because it didn’t appear as though my evidence had been looked into,” Mr Hutcheon told the court in 2020.

“Then I mentioned it to Peter and it all went on from there.

“I made a very, very, very big mistake by not stopping the car in the first place and not talking to Lyn.

“The other mistake I made was not telling everybody that I know what had happened. At the time I just didn’t realise the whole implications of the whole issue.”

A missing person's report for Lynette Dawson tendered in the NSW Supreme Court. Picture: Supplied

His wife Lynette Hutcheon on Tuesday told the court that she “couldn’t imagine in my wildest dream” that her brother, Chris Dawson, would be capable of killing his wife.

She told the court that another Dawson relative, who she referred to as “Aunty Audrey”, had told her that she had seen Lynette Dawson selling crafts at a Beacon Hill markets.

“She believed she had seen her,” Ms Hutcheon told the court.

She also gave evidence about an incident during which she said Ms Dawson said she “shouldn’t have had children”.

It occurred after Chris and Lynette’s eldest daughter bit her younger sister on the face during a family function.

“She broke down, she didn’t know how to handle it,” Ms Hutcheon said.

“That was when she got upset and said ‘I shouldn’t have had children … Chris wanted children, so we had them.’ She was quite distraught.”

The court has previously heard that Ms Dawson was a “doting” mother who underwent surgery to be able to conceive and that at one point she and Mr Dawson were considering adopting.

Peter Breese told the court that he had seen Lynette Dawson working at a hospital following her disappearance. Picture: Nikki Short

Ray Butlin told the court that his wife claimed she had seen Lynette Dawson after she went missing. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

The court was last week told that the Dawsons’ former Bayview neighbours, Peter and Jill Breese, had seen Lynette Dawson at Rock Castle Private Hospital – now South Pacific Private Hospital – at Curl Curl in June 1984.

Mr Breese told the court on Friday that he had undergone a nose operation and was lying in his hospital bed recovering when a woman, who he believed to be Ms Dawson, came to the door wearing a nurse’s uniform.

Ray Butlin, a Dawson family friend through the Gosford Rugby League Club, told the court that his late wife Sue had told him of seeing Ms Dawson at a roadside fruit barn sometime after her disappearance.

The trial continues.