The four words that condemned Chris Dawson
A look at the key pieces of evidence that helped convict Chris Dawson of carrying on a sexual relationship with an underage student.
They were four little words, scribbled in pen on a young girl’s report card at a Sydney northern beaches school over four decades ago.
“A pleasure to teach,” Chris Dawson wrote in perfect cursive.
This week they came back to haunt and condemn the convicted murderer and now sex offender.
In 1980, Dawson was a rock star of the school where he taught physical education.
A former back-rower for the Newtown Jets, charismatic and good looking - he moonlighted as a model and was described during his recent trial as looking like the Chesty Bonds mascot.
That year, he would frequently be seen in the school grounds with a young girl, a student from his year 11 sports coaching class.
The young girl had a troubled home life - her stepfather was an alcoholic and violent - and Dawson became a confidant, a positive male figure in her life and someone she could confide in.
However, that woman - who can only be known as AB - says that by that stage Dawson was “grooming” her.
On Wednesday, Dawson was found guilty of engaging in unlawful sexual activity with the young girl when she was just 16 years old in the latter half of 1980.
Following a two-week District Court trial, which ended earlier this month, Judge Sarah Huggett found him guilty of one count of carnal knowledge.
Through the passage of time and over the past 40 years, many pieces of evidence were lost and memories of events became imperfect.
But Judge Huggett accepted AB’s evidence; that she had sex with him at his parent’s home in Maroubra at some point in the latter half of 1980 when she was just 16.
Dawson claimed their sexual relationship did not begin until the following year - in 1981 when she was in year 12.
However, Judge Huggett found AB’s allegations were backed up by a “large amount of independent” evidence.
These are those pieces of the jigsaw.
THE TROLLEY BOY
A man who worked at the same supermarket as AB as a teenager told the court that he was threatened by Dawson in a darkened parking lot.
The man told the court that at the time, he harboured a crush on her and asked her out on several occasions.
He said he was working a Saturday morning shift when he was approached by Dawson while collecting trolleys from the parking lot.
He said Dawson came “out of the shadows” and backed up him against a concrete ramp.
It took “a minute to clock” who it was but he had been coached by Dawson’s brother Paul and recognised him from watching the Newtown Jets, he said.
“He was pushing my chest, not really aggressively, more in just a threatening way, I guess you could say.
“Then backed me up against that wall, around my chest or lower throat, he wasn’t strangling me or anything like that, he was pushing and holding me.
“He was a very large man. Both the Dawson brothers looked like Chesty Bonds, that’s how we described them back then, very muscular, blond.”
He said Dawson warned him with words to the effect of: “Stay away from her, don’t go near her.”
“I said: ‘Who?’
“He said: ‘(AB).’ … And all of a sudden the pieces fell together.”
Asked about the timing of the event, he said it occurred in 1980 - the same year AB alleges she engaged in sexual activity with Dawson for the first time.
He said he was able to place the year because at that stage he did not have his learner’s permit or a car.
THE SCHOOL GROUND
Judge Huggett also pointed to evidence from AB’s schoolmates, who gave evidence that Dawson and AB were often sighted around the school playground together.
AB was described by one witness as being like Dawson’s “sidekick”.
One of AB’s former schoolmates said she noticed her friend began going missing during recess and lunch around the first half of 1980 and they would see her in his office.
She said she and her friends would often go to Dawson’s office and knock on the door, asking for AB to come out.
“Once I opened the door and I saw her sitting on his lap,” the woman said.
Another woman told the court that one day when she was in year 9 in 1980, she went into the staffroom and saw AB and Dawson together.
“(AB) was sitting on the desk and Chris Dawson was standing between her legs,” the woman said.
GOD
Judge Huggett said some of the most compelling pieces of evidence were a series of cards and notes given to AB by Dawson.
AB said he would slip them into her bag while she was in class and give them to her on special occasions.
One card, which was dated Christmas 1980, said “once or twice every minute” and was signed off as “God”.
AB told the court that the reference to “God” was an attempt to disguise himself because he knew she was 16-years-old.
In another card dated 1981, Dawson wrote: “To the most beautiful girl in the world on her 17th birthday, knowing we will share all the birthdays to follow, all my love.”
Judge Huggett described them as: “Powerful evidence that supports and is consistent with the timeline of the events described by the complainant”.
She added they were “completely inconsistent” with Dawson’s claims that their relationship was at that stage developing and did not become sexual until the following year.
She said it proved that at that stage, Dawson was “a mature man ... confident of a reciprocal and permanent relationship”.
PLEASURE TO TEACH
The court was also read an excerpt from her year 11 report card in which Dawson wrote that she was a “pleasure to teach”.
“(AB) worked well in class and made valuable contributions in discussions. A very pleasant personality, a pleasure to teach,” Dawson wrote on the report card.
During her evidence, AB claimed “pleasure to teach” was a double entendre, which referred to their sexual activities
“He was referring to the lessons I’d learned in sexual activity that he had taught me,” AB said.
“He thought it was very clever to put that on a public document.”
Dawson’s counsel, Claire Wasley, disputed during the trial that the words had a double meaning.
However, Judge Huggett said it was “entirely plausible” it was a reference to sex.
WHAT NOW
Judge Huggett found that AB was “a thoughtful witness who gave her evidence in a matter-of-fact and forthright way”.
While she found there were inaccuracies in some of her evidence, she said AB did not intend to mislead the court or lie.
Throughout the trial, Dawson maintained his silence.
Just as he did not give evidence during his murder trial, he elected not to take the stand during the carnal knowledge proceedings.
Outside of saying “yes, your honour” on several occasions while listening in via videolink from Long Bay jail, where he viewed most of the trial, the court did not hear from him.
The only exception was after he was convicted on Wednesday.
“F**k, f**k, f**k, f**k, f**k,” he muttered to himself as he got up to leave his cell.
Dawson has already been told he should expect to die in jail for the murder of his wife Lynette Simms after he was handed 24 years in jail, with an 18-year non parole period last year.
Outside court, Lynette’s nephew David Jenkins told reporters he hoped AB could get on with her life.
“I don’t know AB,” Mr Jenkins said.
“So I don’t I know how she’ll respond. I hope this helps her in her healing and get through what she’s gone through all these years.”
Dawson will face a sentence hearing in September when both the prosecution and his defence will give Judge Huggett submissions on his sentence.
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