Chris Dawson trial: Sex with students evidence - one twin teaching, the other out back

Chris Dawson’s accuser says she was so in his thrall that she thanked him after his abuse. Her courtroom account included allegations his twin pursued other schoolgirls.

Chris Dawson and Lynette Dawson from a Simms family photo album tendered to the NSW Supreme Court. Photo: Supplied.

Former teacher and star rugby league footballer Chris Dawson’s accuser has given evidence that he groomed and then abused her as a vulnerable child, in a harrowing account that included allegations his twin brother was involved with other schoolgirls.

Known by the pseudonym AB, Dawson’s former student told Sydney’s District Court he was not only a convicted wife killer but a calculating predator who targeted her when she was suffering an extremely troubled home life.

Dawson was a married father of two when he bought the 16-year-old girl chocolates, then took her to an isolated spot in his car for sex, she said.

“He would take the baby seat out of the car and move it so he could fold the seats down,” she said.

High school lunch and recess breaks at Cromer High on Sydney’s northern beaches were used by Dawson as opportunities to engage in sexual activity with the teenage girl while other students gathered in the playground.

At his home at Bayview, also on the northern beaches, the girl was installed as the unpaid babysitter and Dawson would “expect sex to happen” when his wife Lyn was asleep or in the shower.

On the second day of Dawson’s trial for alleged sex with his former student, his accuser AB finally had her day in court as a complainant.

She appeared calm and composed for most of her evidence, given via video link as Dawson sat out of her view in the dock.

AB went on to marry Dawson and was a key witness at his murder trial last year after going to police in the 1990s with her concerns about the disappearance of his first wife, Lyn.

She said on Tuesday that Dawson and his identical twin brother Paul ran weekly exercise classes at a high school at Lindfield in Sydney’s upper north shore in 1980.

“They would alternate songs and exercises and in the times when one twin was running a class the other one was out the back with whichever student was their property at the time,” she said. “So if the twin brother was running the class then the accused and I would duck out the back and he would – it would be kissing and cuddling and canoodling, you might say, for the length of that song. And then we would come back to the class and Paul would go out the back with (another girl).”

The Dawson twins shared an exceptionally close bond, with both becoming schoolteachers and professional footballers with the Newtown Jets rugby league team.

Paul Dawson, who has not been charged with any offence, was close to another female student. They would all go to a pool at the same Lindfield school where the twins ran their exercise classes, AB said.

“I remember the four of us going in the pool with no clothes on,” she said.

“You had to wear bathing caps in those days in a public pool. I was the devil incarnate because I was in the pool with no clothes on and no cap.

“Paul and (the other girl) were up one end of the pool and we were at the other end of the pool (having sexual activity). That’s what was happening.”

The Dawson twins would tell their wives they were going to the library and instead go to the Time and Tide Hotel to meet AB and other students.

“Part of the grooming process, I would say, to get me to trust him,” she said.

The trial hinges on whether the girl was 16 and Dawson’s student when they had sex. Dawson has pleaded not guilty and says sex happened later. He was last year convicted of murdering his first wife, Lyn, and sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Prosecutor Emma Blizard said Dawson paid “particular attention” to AB in class during 1980, when she was in year 11 at Cromer High.

“By the middle of 1980 (AB) had quite a difficult home life.”

The two-bedroom Dee Why flat in which the family lived – AB, her sisters, her mother and stepfather – was an unhappy home, Ms Blizard said.

Both AB’s mother and stepfather were frequent drinkers of alcohol, and there were arguments. The stepfather was physically and emotionally abusive towards AB’s mother.

“(AB) started to confide in the accused,” Ms Blizard said.

AB told the court that in August or September 1980 Dawson – whom she referred to as “the accused” – took her to his parents’ home in Chester St, Maroubra, and engaged in sexual activity with her.

“He got me to undress in front of him, it was dark, I didn’t want the lights on because I was afraid,” she said.

“I just remember lying there on the bed in anticipation, shaking. He made sure I was comfortable all the way; he kept asking me: ‘Is this OK, this is all part of the process, I’ll help you to get over trauma.’

“And then asked me: ‘Was that OK? Well we’ve done that, I hope this was helpful, it was a good start, you did really well’, and I was: ‘Oh thank you’, really grateful.”

The trial will be covered in depth in our podcasts The Front every weekday and in our newest production, The Teacher’s Accuser, available wherever you get your podcasts.

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