Wife killer Chris Dawson in court to appeal schoolgirl sex conviction

Convicted wife killer Chris Dawson says, while he may have been ‘romantic’ and ‘smitten’ with a schoolgirl before she turned 17, the prosecution can’t prove he had sexual intercourse with her before she finished Year 11.

Convicted wife killer Chris Dawson is appealing a carnal knowledge conviction over his unlawful sexual relationship with a teenage schoolgirl in the 1980s. Picture: Rocco Fazzari

Convicted wife killer Chris Dawson says while he may have been “romantic” and “smitten” with a schoolgirl before she turned 17, the prosecution can’t prove he had sexual intercourse with her before she finished the school year, when it would have been a crime.

Dawson, who is serving 24 years for the murder of his first wife, Lyn Simms, is attempting to overturn a conviction related to the “unlawful carnal knowledge” of a student, whom he went on to marry.

The former teacher and professional footballer with the Newtown Jets was sentenced in 2023 to a further three years in prison for grooming and engaging in unlawful sexual acts with the 16-year-old, who can be known only as AB, at a Sydney high school in 1980.

The aging murderer appeared in front of three Supreme Court justices on Monday, as his lawyers argued the schoolgirl’s evidence about the timing of their first sexual encounter was “unreliable”, important evidence about when the sexual intercourse occurred was not taken into account, and that the verdict of guilty was “unreasonable”.

If Dawson is successful in proving the judge made one or more errors, the matter would go to a retrial.

This is all happening as he asks 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.

In the original judge-alone trial for unlawful sexual acts with a student, District court judge Sarah Huggett accepted AB’s testimony that she was “groomed” by Dawson in the playground before they first engaged in sexual activity in his parents’ Maroubra home in the latter half of 1980. Justice Huggett subsequently found Dawson guilty of engaging in sexual acts with AB when she was in his year 11 PE class.

On Monday, Dawson relied on a number of key moments in time to argue there was a “real doubt” that sexual intercourse occurred before December 1980, when the schoolgirl would have completed Year 11. This includes whether the first kiss and initial sexual intercourse occurred before the student received her learner driver licence, which she said was around the time she became eligible, at 16 years and 9 months. Dawson was giving the schoolgirl driving lessons during this period.

Chris Dawson at the trial over the murder of his wife Lynette. Picture: Dean Lewins/AAP

His lawyers also argued there was uncertainty over whether sexual intercourse occurred in the context of fitness classes she attended with Dawson in 1980 or 1981, which she told a court was part of his grooming process. “That is enough in itself to raise a reasonable doubt,” Dawson’s barrister Stephen Odgers SC said.

Dawson appeared on video from prison, and spent much of the hearing turned half towards the door, with his head down or looking into the distance. At one point he was asked if he “needed to go anywhere” after looking towards the door.

“The central issue at the trial and on this appeal relates to timing,” Mr Odgers said.

“There was no dispute that sexual intercourse did ultimately take place between the applicant and the complainant, but the question was whether the prosecution had proved that it had occurred prior to ... December 1980, which of course was necessary for the offence to be committed.”

Mr Odgers said that, while there was evidence Dawson had engaged in “romantic behaviour of various kinds, saying things, indicating love, standing close to (her)” during 1980, there was a “difference between being romantic and engaging in sexual intercourse, particularly when the sexual intercourse constitutes a serious criminal offence”.

Dawson told the schoolgirl he loved her and wanted to marry her before she turned 17.

“He is clearly smitten by her ... He clearly is romantically very attracted to her. The question is, did he go to the next step of committing the serious criminal offence, and is there a doubt about that based on timing?” Mr Odgers said.

Judge Sarah Huggett delivers a verdict in the judge-alone trial of Chris Dawson. Picture: Dan Himbrechts

Helen Roberts SC, for the Crown, said the real question was whether the schoolgirl was reliable “on the key issues” when all the evidence was taken together.

She said there was evidence of a physical relationship in 1980, including “kissing and cuddling and canoodling”.

Throughout the trial, AB said they first had sexual intercourse when she was 16 and in Year 11, and Ms Roberts said it was not necessary for the Crown to establish whether or not she held a driver licence or whether she was engaged in exercise classes at the time of the first kiss or first sexual interaction.

“There really is only one question, which of course is a very important one ... (Is) the evidence as a whole sufficiently credible and reliable to satisfy the trial court, and this court, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the first act of sexual intercourse at Maroubra occurred prior to 12 December 1980?

“And her honour then made findings, which, having found that the complainant was a truthful witness, seeking to be truthful, but unreliable in specific aspects ... noting the passage of time.”