Chris Dawson tore up student’s exam sex story

Former teacher Chris Dawson’s accuser has told of his harsh reaction when she alluded to their sexual contact in a school exam paper, as she broke down in court.

Complainant AB and Chris Dawson on their wedding day, after he murdered his first wife, Lynette.

Former teacher and professional footballer Chris Dawson’s accuser has told a court of his harsh reaction when she alluded to their sexual contact in a school exam paper.

The evidence came on a dramatic day that saw the complainant, known by the pseudonym AB, break down in tears, and in which her claims received unwavering support from a long-time friend.

AB said she was 16-years-old and in Year 11 when a classmate encouraged her to write something “exotic” to her then-sports teacher at Cromer High on Sydney’s northern beaches in 1980.

“I’d been having sex with him for quite a long time before that,” she said.

“I wrote something to that effect and when he saw my exam – I handed it to him hoping he would like that – he tore off that portion of that exam and gave me a zero as a mark.

“I was a bit surprised by that. As a 16-year-old, you don’t really understand why that is going on, but he just gave me zero.”

The words in the paper echoed the kind of things they’d been doing, she told Sydney’s District Court, where Dawson is on trial for having sex with AB when she was his student that same year.

“It was not for publication. It was to him alone as the sexual partner, could I say, that he was,” she said.

A short time after giving the evidence, AB was asked about her subsequent 1984 marriage to Dawson, and about the daughter they had together in 1985.

She suddenly broke down in tears, and the video link beaming her into Court LG1 in the Downing Centre court complex was briefly cut so she could compose herself. The trial was previously told Dawson ordered AB to keep their sexual relationship secret.

For the first time, Dawson appeared at the trial via video link instead of in person, after defence lawyer Claire Wasley said he was struggling with travel to and from Long Bay jail and long days.

AB said she separated from Dawson in early 1990, and in May the same year she made her first police statement about the disappearance of Dawson’s first wife, Lynette Simms.

In 1998 she said she was working at Manly Court on behalf of a women’s refuge.

“I spoke to someone who I came to know and I think he actually contacted Pat Clear (an employee of the Education Department) for me and got him to call me back.”

AB’s statement to Mr Clear, who has since died, was her first official complaint about Dawson allegedly grooming and abusing her as a schoolgirl.

Later in 1998 she also spoke to police officers Damian Loone and John Pendergast.

In 2003 she gave evidence at an inquest into Lyn’s disappearance.

In 2018, after the launch of The Teacher’s Pet podcast, NSW Police created Strike Force Southwood to investigate claims of teachers having sex with students, and AB contacted police through a solicitor and indicated she wished to make a statement about Dawson’s alleged abuse.

Dawson, a former professional rugby league footballer with the Newtown Jets, was last year convicted of his wife Lyn‘s 1982 murder and sentenced to 24 years’ imprisonment.

He has indicated he will appeal that conviction.

A close friend of AB’s provided support to her allegations, with evidence of seeing AB sitting on Dawson’s lap in his school office in 1980 when they were in Year 11.

The woman, who can only be identified as MC, went to kindergarten with AB and then through primary and high school.

AB started going missing from her school friendship group in 1980, and would go to physical education teacher Dawson’s office at Cromer High for the whole of recess and lunch, MC said.

“Once, I opened the door and saw her sitting in there on his lap,” she said.

AB told her at the time that she going to Dawson’s office because “he’s helping me”, MC said.

“She would tell me she was not happy at home. She told me Mr Dawson was trying to help her and help her situation. He was being kind to her. He was listening to her. He was giving her guidance. And this is why she needed to be in his office.”

AB started excluding herself, and was no longer available to her friends on Friday nights or weekends.

“She also told us that year, by the end of the year, that he loved her. And she did say to us `he wants to marry me. He’s going to look after me.’”

MC rejected a suggestion from Dawson’s defence lawyer Claire Wasley that some events actually occurred in 1981, when AB was in Year 12.

“I’m sure it’s in Year 11. In Year 11 we were trying to figure out why she was going in there. It was definitely Year 11,“ MC replied.

Dawson would not have committed an offence if he started a sexual relationship with AB when she was in Year 12, because she turned 17 that year and was not in his class.

–

Subscribe to our podcasts The Front and The Teacher’s Accuser to hear all the news plus in-depth analysis from our journalists Hedley Thomas, Matthew Condon, Claire Harvey and David Murray.