‘Please tell us where she is’: Daughter’s plea to Dawson in court

Shanelle Dawson locked eyes with her father Chris Dawson in the NSW Supreme Court as she told him of her loss from his “heart-wrenchingly selfish, brutal and misogynistic act” of murdering her mother, Lynette, 40 years ago.

“Please tell us where she is,” the 45-year-old said.

Chris Dawson arriving at court on August 30 before the guilty verdict was delivered.Credit: Kate Geraghty

Dawson, 74, was found guilty in August of murdering Lynette Dawson on or about January 8, 1982.

The former schoolteacher and Newtown Jets rugby league player was brought into the packed Sydney courtroom by two sheriff officers on Thursday afternoon, wearing a prison green tracksuit and sitting in the dock behind glass panels. Shanelle began sobbing at the sight of her father.

Dawson has always maintained his innocence and claimed Lynette, a 33-year-old mother of two who vanished from Sydney’s northern beaches, had abandoned their Bayview home of her own accord. However, the judge concluded Lynette “did not leave her home voluntarily”.

Justice Ian Harrison, who delivered his judgment over almost five hours after a two-month trial earlier this year, found Dawson had a “possessive infatuation” with the babysitter and his former student, known as JC, which affected him significantly and he “resolved to kill his wife”.

Shanelle Dawson (left) leaves the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday after reading her victim impact statement.Credit: Jessica Hromas

Reading her victim impact statement, Shanelle, who was aged 4½ when her mother was murdered, locked eyes with her father from opposite sides of the room before she began. Dawson bowed his head for much of the hearing.

“Because of your selfish actions, we will never see her again, we will never hear her tell us she loves us,” Shanelle said.

She said he had “coldly” disposed of Lynette and committed a “heart-wrenchingly selfish, brutal, misogynistic act”.

“My defence mechanisms have erased all happy memories of my mother.”

Lynette Dawson on ABC’s Chequerboard program in 1975.Credit: NSW Supreme Court/ABC

Shanelle said her father made her mother “invisible”, rarely speaking of her and “what she was like”, and that she had initially believed what he had said, that Lynette left “because she didn’t love us any more”.

She said Dawson had left a “massive, gaping hole” in her world.

“Why didn’t you just divorce her, let those who love and needed her, keep her?” Shanelle said.

“I’ve lost not only my adoring, kind, wonderful and beautiful mother, but I’ve lost my father too. I’ve lost a sense of protection you were supposed to provide.”

Lynette Dawson’s brother Greg Simms, with wife Merilyn, outside court after the sentence hearing.Credit: Louise Kennerley

Lynette’s brother Greg Simms stared at Dawson as his statement was read by a support person, in which he labelled Dawson a “coward” and a “conniving monster” who had committed the “ultimate betrayal” and also left Shanelle a “tortured soul”.

“Tell us where Lyn is and allow us to bring her home to a peaceful rest, finally giving her the dignity she deserves,” he said.

Asked by media outside court whether he thought Dawson deserved to “die in jail”, Simms replied, “No. He has to do his time, and then tell us where Lyn is.”

Lynette’s sister Pat Jenkins, in a statement read to the court, said she was left “confused, alarmed, distressed and in a deep, dark void not knowing what happened to my sister” and wondering how a “much-loved person had inextricably dropped off the face of the earth”.

“Lyn’s disappearance and the journey has since taught me that no one is safe from tragedy. It can unexpectedly strike anywhere and justice can also be a long time coming,” Jenkins said.

Crown prosecutor Craig Everson, SC, submitted that Dawson’s actions caused substantial harm to others and the offender “plainly knew” Lynette’s death would deprive her children of their mother.

“The death of Lynette and the offender’s subsequent campaign of disinformation left her parents and siblings in a state of anxiety, upset and uncertainty for decades,” Everson said.

“The offender has shown no remorse.”

The court heard that a forensic psychiatrist had assessed Dawson as having a depressive illness and mild cognitive impairment.

Defence solicitor Greg Walsh said his client’s health had “deteriorated significantly” and raised chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as CTE, “which is this terrible [brain] disease we’re all becoming familiar with of footballers”.

“In recent times, he has had problems in custody ... losing consciousness, slurring his words and can’t even recall for instance ... the name of the jail,” Walsh said.

He argued the case was not of “great heinousness” that it fell within the “worst category”.

Dawson’s case gained international notoriety following investigative journalist Hedley Thomas’ podcast The Teacher’s Pet, which was released in 2018, the same year NSW Police extradited Dawson from Queensland and charged him with Lynette’s murder.

Walsh submitted, in relation to the impending sentencing of his client, that the case had attracted the “most constant and egregious publicity that one has seen”, portraying Dawson as a “perverted and greedy individual and cold and calculating man”.

He said Dawson is called “The Teacher’s Pet” in custody, “day in, day out, minute after minute, hour by hour”.

Lynette’s body has never been found.

Following Dawson’s conviction, NSW introduced “no body, no parole” laws, requiring offenders to co-operate with authorities and disclose the location of remains for a chance of release on parole.

“Under the new laws, the State Parole Authority must have regard to written advice from the Commissioner of NSW Police when determining whether an offender has co-operated satisfactorily to identify a victim’s location,” the state government said in a statement in October.

Outside court, Walsh said Dawson’s appeal was being prepared and involved Senior Public Defender Belinda Rigg, SC.

Walsh added: “Unless he [Dawson] was successful in his appeal, he’ll die in jail.”

The judge told the court he intends to sentence Dawson on December 2.

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