Chris Dawson murder trial: Justice arrives at long last for Lyn Dawson’s family

It has taken 40 years to get to this day. Or, in the words of Lyn’s brother Greg Simms: ‘It’s been a hell of a long time.’ Today, a NSW judge will deliver his verdict on her absence.

Lyn Dawson’s brother Greg Simms, with his wife, Merilyn, in Sydney on Monday ahead of the trial verdict. Picture: Adam Yip

It has taken 40 years to get to this day.

Or, in the words of Lyn Dawson’s brother Greg Simms: “It’s been a hell of a long time.”

For four decades, Lyn has been missing from every significant event in the lives of everyone who loved her.

Weddings, births, anniversaries and funerals of family and friends have all come and gone without her.

On Tuesday morning, NSW Supreme Court judge Ian Harrison SC will deliver his verdict on her absence.

Justice Harrison will say whether in his view it is beyond reasonable doubt that Lyn was murdered and disposed of by her ­husband, former teacher Chris Dawson.

Chris Dawson. Picture: Damian Shaw

It’s the end of a long road for Lyn’s family, whose story of ­heartache and delayed justice is now known all over the world through The Australian’s podcasts The Teacher’s Pet and The Teacher’s Trial.

“The last time I spoke with her was just prior to Christmas ’81,” Mr Simms said on the verdict’s eve. “Not having her in your life, you can’t fathom it, you can’t explain it.

“She was the organiser in the family. Any little thing that was due, like a birthday or anything like that, a celebration, she was the main person to start it off.

“We have been like a ship ­without a rudder without our ­beloved sister.”

Greg and his wife Merilyn hope to see a sea of pink in honour of Lyn when the verdict is ­delivered.

It was a colour Lyn loved – and the colour that lifted their spirits when hundreds of people carried pink flowers in a walk to the Long Reef headland on Sydney’s northern beaches in late September 2018. That was two months before Mr Dawson was arrested and charged.

A 12-year-old Lyn and Greg, 8

The couple will don something pink in Lyn’s honour and hope others will too, as they steel ­themselves for both possible ­outcomes.

“We’re just trying to preserve ourselves and to think, ‘well, we’ll have to accept whatever happens’,” Ms Simms said.

“To get it to trial was just something that we really didn’t think would ever happen.

“We’re so grateful to so many people for getting it there for us. We’re just so grateful that her name has been out there that people really know the story now.”

Mr Simms added: “We’re still quite anxious. We’re churning up inside. Outside looks very calm but inside is a mess. This is something we’ve just got to cope with. And we will do it.”

No one in Lyn’s family has heard from her since the night of Friday, January 8, 1982, when she spoke on the phone to her mother Helena Simms.

Lyn sounded “half sozzled” during the call, and said her ­husband had fixed her a lovely drink, her mother wrote in her diary.

Mr Dawson says that the next day Lyn abandoned the home they had built together at Bayview on the northern beaches, and everything and everyone in it including her two little girls, then aged just four and two.

He is accused of murdering Lyn because he was obsessed with a teenage girl half his age, and to avoid an expensive ­divorce.

Ms Simms said there were many innocent victims from Lyn’s absence, but particularly her girls.

“They’ve never known the love of their own mother and what she was really like,” Ms Simms said.

“Hopefully they’ve learned a bit more about her through this.

“Lyn would be amazed at the amount of support that’s come from all over the place – and the amazing interest that’s in this case to see justice done.

“She would be just blown away by it. And humbled.”

Mr Simms wholeheartedly agreed, adding: “Very humbled.”