Chris Dawson defence at schoolgirl sex trial relies on mind games

A naked dip in a school pool and incessant proposals of marriage between a teacher and his student. These were among the disparate objects and scenarios placed under the microscope.

Public defender Claire Wasley is representing Chris Dawson at his carnal knowledge trial in Sydney(AAP Image/Dean Lewins)

A single, salacious photograph of a topless schoolgirl.

An ancient school report card. A tennis match on the courts at Cromer High School on Sydney’s northern beaches.

A naked dip in a school pool. And incessant proposals of marriage between a teacher and his student.

These were among the disparate objects and scenarios placed under the microscope on Thursday at Christopher Dawson’s carnal knowledge trial in the Sydney District Court.

Claire Wasley, public defender and counsel for Dawson, steadily and meticulously cross-examined the complainant, chief witness AB.

At 10.47am, with AB back in that white room in an undisclosed location, and appearing in court via audiovisual link, Wasley said: “You understand I’m the barrister representing the accused?”

AB wore a sleeveless bright pink blouse and carried about her the promise of spring. But from the outset, the cross-examination was anything but sunny.

This was the first instance in the trial that Wasley was on full display, and in full flight.

Two things quickly became apparent.

AB had lost her smile. Her appearances at trial had been, to date, punctuated with the occasional happy disposition. She had always appeared patient and in control, except for the mention of her daughter in evidence that proved emotionally distressing.

Sketch of Dawson in Sydney's Downing Centre. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Vincent de Gouw

On Thursday, resting forward on her elbows during Wasley’s interrogation, her mouth appeared downcast at the corners, and there were flashes of weariness, whether that be from the defence’s attempts to debunk many of her allegations, or the mental effort to dredge 40-year- old memories from her subconscious, or something else entirely.

As for Wasley, she was not aggressive, nor was she meek. She spoke in a firm, clear voice.

As the trial subject matter returned to the schoolyards and classrooms of Cromer High in the early 1980s, it wasn’t difficult to imagine Wasley, in her own school years, as a prefect at the very least.

Wasley’s job yesterday was to line up several statements made by AB over the decades for various investigations, including the disappearance of Dawson’s wife Lyn (he was convicted of her murder last year) and his behaviour as a teacher at Cromer High, then place those facts beside the evidence AB had given at the trial this week.

She suggested that AB had never before mentioned the matter of a topless photo of her being circulated in 1979 and then confiscated and returned to her by Dawson until this trial.

AB was adamant the photo existed and interaction with Dawson happened.

The defence moved on to a school report card issued to AB at the end of the 1980 school year, when she completed year 11. AB said in evidence earlier that her physical education teacher Dawson’s written comment about her being a “pleasure to teach” was in fact code that related to their sexual activities at the time.

Wasley suggested AB had made that up.

Garbage, said AB.

As for the alleged kissing and canoodling that AB told the court occurred in Dawson’s office at the school during recess and lunch breaks, Wasley suggested that this alleged behaviour occurred in 1981 (when she was 17), and not the year before.

It started in year 11, AB replied, when she was 16.

It was also suggested by the defence that AB had misremembered occasions when she, Dawson, his twin brother Paul and another student took naked dips together in a Sydney school pool. That in fact the quartet had been joined by members of an exercise class that the Dawson twins ran, and there was never any nakedness.

Garbage, said AB.

It’s true. It’s false. It happened. It didn’t happen. You made it up. No, I didn’t.

There were no schoolyard brawls in court LG1 yesterday, as cross-examination can sometimes devolve into.

Just two women reaching into the murk of a very distant past and trying to dredge a semblance of truth to the surface.