Chris Dawson’s High Court appeal against murder conviction rejected, closing case after 43 years
Convicted wife-killer Chris Dawson has been denied special leave to appeal to the High Court against his murder conviction, closing the case that attracted worldwide attention in The Teacher’s Pet podcast.
Convicted wife-killer Chris Dawson has been denied special leave to appeal to the High Court against his murder conviction, closing the case that attracted worldwide attention in The Teacher’s Pet podcast.
Dawson’s last-ditch bid for freedom was rejected by the nation’s highest court in a brief judgment published online on Thursday, and he now faces the reality of spending the rest of his life behind bars.
“The applicant requires an extension of time within which to seek special leave to appeal from the whole of the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeal of NSW,” the decision reads.
“The applicant appealed against his conviction to the Court of Criminal Appeal, which found error on the part of the trial judge but dismissed the appeal on the basis that no substantial miscarriage of justice had occurred.
“There is no reason to doubt the correctness of the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal including its dismissal of the appeal … notwithstanding the trial judge’s errors. Accordingly, it would be futile to grant an extension of time. Special leave to appeal is refused.”
The decision was handed down by Chief Justice Stephen Gageler and judges Michelle Gordon, James Edelman, Jacqueline Gleeson, Jayne Jagot and Robert Beech-Jones.
It has been more than seven years since The Teacher’s Pet launched in May 2018, shining a spotlight on the then-unsolved disappearance of Dawson’s first wife, Lyn Simms, from the couple’s family home at Bayview in Sydney’s northern beaches in January 1982.
NSW police arrested Dawson in December 2018 as past refusals of the state’s independent prosecution service to back a murder charge against the former professional rugby league footballer and high school physical education teacher came under intense public scrutiny.
Simms’s brother, Greg Simms, shed tears of relief at the High Court’s dismissal of Dawson’s appeal more than 43 years after her disappearance.
Mr Simms and his wife, Merilyn, were informed of the decision by The Australian’s national chief correspondent, Hedley Thomas, who forensically examined the case in The Teacher’s Pet, earning international acclaim and a prestigious Gold Walkley Award.
The couple had dreaded the prospect of going through a second lengthy murder trial.
“We are ecstatic and massively relieved. For 43 years, Dawson has had control – now it’s our time to live our lives without having this hanging over our heads. Nothing will bring Lyn back or compensate for the pain that’s been caused, but finally, justice has been done,” the couple said in a statement.
“Dawson will have plenty of time to face reality and reflect on how many lives he’s destroyed due to his deceit over the years.”
The couple offered heartfelt thanks to retired detective Damian Loone, NSW Police Force unsolved homicide investigator Daniel Poole and their teams for their work on the case. They also singled out former commissioner Mick Fuller for listening to Thomas, broadcaster Ben Fordham and the public and directing detectives to follow up on many leads given to Thomas during the podcast.
“To The Australian and Hedley for their unwavering support and exposure. There is no doubt in our minds that without your work and the eventual collaboration with the police and the DPP, a trial wouldn’t have eventuated. A guilty conviction was handed down, and now that stands forever,” the couple said.
The ruling was also bittersweet, with the location of Simms’s remains still unknown as Dawson, now 76, continues to profess his innocence.
Thomas said he was refreshing the High Court’s website at 2pm when the decision was published as scheduled.
“It took 10 seconds to ring Lyn’s brother, Greg Simms, and his wife, Merilyn. They were on tenterhooks,” he said. “Merilyn cried out and Greg was clearly very relieved. They said it’s felt to them like he has been controlling a big part of their lives for so many years.
“They thought they had been able to move on outside that control after his murder conviction in 2022 but then these successive appeals made them realise he was still having a really adverse impact. Now they feel this is it, the end of the road.”
Dawson murdered Simms in January 1982 to be with his teenage babysitter and former student, disposing of his wife’s body in a place that has never been found.
He fought hard to permanently halt his trial, arguing that pre-trial publicity and the 40-year delay in prosecuting him meant he couldn’t be judged fairly. Those arguments were rejected by the NSW Supreme Court, NSW Court of Criminal Appeal and High Court.
His Supreme Court murder trial went ahead without a jury at his request, culminating in judge Ian Harrison convicting him in 2022. Justice Harrison sentenced Dawson to 24 years in jail, to serve a minimum of 18 years.
In the unlikely event Dawson is alive when his time for parole comes around, state “no body, no parole” laws will guarantee he will not be released without leading police to Simms’s remains.
Now known by her pre-marriage name at her family’s request, Simms was 33 when she disappeared, leaving behind two girls, then aged four and two.
Dawson asked the High Court to quash his murder conviction and order a new trial, claiming he suffered a “significant forensic disadvantage” due to witnesses dying and records being lost over time.
Lawyers for Dawson said in court filings in February that the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal made a series of errors when it upheld Justice Harrison’s guilty verdict. The NSW appeals court should have declared a mistrial because Justice Harrison failed to find the former teacher and star footballer suffered a significant disadvantage in a case involving a 40-year delay, they said.
Barristers Phillip Boulten and Claire Wasley, jointly representing Dawson, filed the application to the High Court for special leave to appeal the murder conviction.
One of the people put forward by Dawson’s lawyers in the application as a key witness was Sue Butlin, who is said to have claimed she spotted Simms at a fruit shop at Kulnura on the NSW central coast after she disappeared.
NSW police terminated the first homicide investigation in the early 1990s after being told the prospects of a conviction were poor, given Butlin’s purported sighting.
Yet homicide detectives did not even speak to Butlin, and a police statement was never taken from her before she died.
Butlin’s name first appeared in police files when Dawson was interviewed by homicide detectives in 1991 and said a “friend of mine and Lyn’s said she’d seen Lyn on the central coast”.
Her husband, Ray, was a long-time friend of Dawson and his twin brother, Paul. At a 2003 inquest, Mr Butlin suggested the “sighting” could have been an exaggeration or distortion.
If she had “seen somebody that may have been of like appearance to Lyn – and she knew Lyn extremely well – she may have wanted herself to see Lyn, it would put her in a situation where she would be at the centre of attention”, he said. “Chris and Paul to Sue were more or less stars. She looked up to them quite a bit.”
Dawson’s lawyers told the High Court that in addition to significant witnesses dying, the vast majority of the police documents from the first homicide investigation were lost, as were other records, including Bankcard records that purportedly suggested Simms had used her Bankcard after disappearing.
The appeal also cited police delays in taking statements from Dawson’s co-workers at Northbridge Baths, where he claimed Simms phoned him and said she needed “time away”.
Phone and employment records that could have supported his version of events, and evidence related to other purported sightings, were also unavailable.
To bolster their argument that they should be granted leave to appeal, Dawson’s lawyers said the issue of forensic disadvantage had national impacts and the case could be used to clarify the law.
The High Court was asked to consider what “suffering a forensic disadvantage due to delay” means, and how an appellate court should take that disadvantage into account when considering if a verdict is unreasonable.
Mr Boulten previously represented Dawson in failed attempts to secure a permanent stay of proceedings to avoid going to trial.
Dawson was represented at the trial by barrister Pauline David, now a NSW District Court judge, and Sydney solicitor Greg Walsh.
Judge Julie Ward, the president of the NSW Court of Appeal, and judges Anthony Payne and Christine Adamson unanimously dismissed his appeal against his murder conviction in June 2024.
Chris and Paul Dawson were Sydney celebrities, playing rugby union for Eastern Suburbs together before switching to play league for the Newtown Jets.
Both became teachers.
Evidence gathered by police and The Teacher’s Pet suggests they used their positions of authority to conduct sexual relationships with schoolgirls.
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