What cops secretly recorded Chris Dawson saying about allegations

What Chris Dawson told friends and family about his wife’s disappearance in phone calls secretly recorded by police has been revealed in court.

Chris Dawson lashed allegations about domestic violence and a hit man as “bulls**t” made up by his former wife and babysitter in phone calls intercepted by police, a court has been told.

The Crown prosecution on Thursday morning closed its case in the murder trial of Mr Dawson who has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife Lynette in early 1982.

“That’s the case for the Crown,” Crown prosecutor Craig Everson told the court.

The Crown prosecution has contended that Mr Dawson bore animosity towards his wife and killed her so he could be with a then teenage former student and babysitter, who can only be known as JC.

During her evidence, JC made several serious allegations against him, including that he was physically abusive during their six-year marriage before they separated in acrimonious circumstances in 1990.

She told the court that in 1981 he drove her to a building where she remained in the car and when he returned he told her “I went inside to get a hit man to kill Lyn”.

Chris Dawson has argued that his wife Lynette walked out on their home 40 years ago. Picture NCA NewsWire/Gaye Gerard

According to JC, Mr Dawson changed his mind because he said other people would get hurt.

During phone calls that were captured during police phone taps in 2018 – just months before he was arrested – Mr Dawson said JC had invented the claims amid a bitter separation more than 30 years ago.

“That’s when (JC) came up with all this bulls**t about I was supposed to have driven her to see a hit man, I was supposed to have been an abusive husband, she was supposed to be a prisoner locked in our home up on the Gold Coast,” Mr Dawson told a friend in a phone call that was played to the court on Thursday.

“She had her own car, her own electric device to open up the gate. It was a wire mesh fence.

“She went everywhere she wanted yet she told she was this prisoner.”

Mr Dawson was overheard saying that JC was uncaring for the two daughters he had with Ms Dawson.

“She used to make their scalps bleed when she brushed their hair, but I’m supposed to be the vicious one that she had to escape from,” Mr Dawson said in a conversation with a family member.

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

He also attacked the credibility of another former babysitter who claims she witnessed Mr Dawson being physically violent towards Ms Dawson.

The woman, who can only be known as BM, told the court during her testimony that she witnessed one incident in which she saw Mr Dawson grab Ms Dawson by the arm and swing her into a door frame like a “ragdoll”.

BM also told the court of a separate incident in early 1980 when she said Mr Dawson reduced his wife to tears by flicking her with a tea towel after he was angered by a dirty glass.

BM also made statements in the media in 2018.

Mr Dawson told a family member during a call that BM was influenced by Hedley Thomas, the journalist who wrote The Teacher’s Pet podcast.

“This babysitter babysat for us twice,” Mr Dawson said.

“A couple of the experts said I had this dark side to me and all the rest of it.

“They’re using all the same words – they’re being prepped really well by this bloody Hedley Thomas.

“They all come out and say I was narcissistic, I have this dark side no one knew about. It’s all about selling his bloody podcast.”

Mr Dawson told the same family member that he had at one point considered suicide.

“I think they think I’m going to neck myself,” Mr Dawson said.

“I’ve thought of it but I won’t. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.”

Chris Dawson and JC is on their wedding day.

Hedley Thomas wrote The Teacher’s Pet podcast. Picture NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

During legal arguments on Thursday afternoon, Mr Dawson’s lawyer Greg Walsh told the court that BM’s memories had been influenced by her discussions with Mr Thomas.

Mr Walsh argued that BM had never claimed she saw Mr Dawson “whipping” Ms Dawson with a towel; however, when she spoke to Mr Thomas he introduced the term which she then adopted.

“That’s a classic example of how memory can be distorted in an infectious way, if I could use that term,” Mr Walsh said.

Meanwhile, defence barrister Pauline David on Thursday told the court that Mr Thomas should be held in contempt of court after making public commentary about the case.

He was quoted in The Australian on Thursday after completing his evidence on Wednesday.

During his evidence, Mr Thomas denied that he “poisoned the mind” of potential witnesses.

Ms David asked Justice Ian Harrison to consider whether it amounted to contempt of court.

“I believe it is contemptuous in the sense it is … comment on the process of the trial,” Ms David said.

Justice Harrison said he would consider the matter at another point.

The trial will continue on Monday.