Chris Dawson appeal: judges to hand down decision

Chris Dawson will learn on Thursday the result of his appeal against his conviction for murdering his wife after three NSW judges reserved their decision last month.

Chris Dawson is escorted by NSW Police detectives as he arrives at the Sydney Police Centre in 2018. Picture: AAP

Judges are ready to hand down their decision in Chris Dawson’s appeal against his conviction for murdering his wife, Lyn Simms, 42 years ago.

Dawson will find out the result of his appeal on Thursday, four weeks after three judges in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal reserved their decision in the case that attracted worldwide attention through The Australian’s investigative podcast The Teacher’s Pet.

Court of Appeal president Julie Ward, sitting with judges Anthony Payne and Christine Adamson, heard the appeal over three days in May.

Lyn Dawson, now known as Lyn Simms at the request of her family, pictured with daughter Shanelle.

The court was told Lyn became an “impediment” to Dawson, a former high school physical education teacher and star rugby league footballer, having “unfettered access” to a teenage girl, known by the pseudonym JC, with whom he was having an affair and would later marry.

Dawson’s counsel, ­Belinda Rigg SC, argued there were “significant credit issues” with JC, despite trial judge Ian Harrison’s findings in Dawson’s criminal trial that she was “truthful and reliable”.

Ms Rigg suggested JC’s later separation and divorce from Dawson corrupted her.

JC’s allegation that Dawson told her he had planned to get a hitman to kill Lyn had been rejected by Justice Harrison and indicated she was not honest or reliable, Ms Rigg said.

Justice Adamson said JC’s evidence had been independently corroborated. “She was very, very significantly corroborated on pretty much everything that mattered, except the hitman,” Justice ­Adamson said.

Chris Dawson and second wife JC on their wedding day.

Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC said some of the language Justice Harrison used in his findings in the judge-alone trial was “problematic” but there was “not a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted in this case”.

Dawson, now 75, was convicted in 2022 of murdering Lyn. Her body has never been found.