Chris Dawson’s schoolgirl lover stands firm in face of defence grilling

Given the number of legal eagles paying tribute to the late NSW District Court judge, Peter Zahra, starting times for court hearings were pushed back, including the murder trial of Christopher Dawson.

Christopher Dawson (left) leaves the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney. Picture NCA Newswire/Gaye Gerard

The wheels of justice cease for nobody, but they slowed down appreciably on Friday morning for the late NSW District Court judge, Peter Zahra.

Justice Zahra, 66, died suddenly following a stroke in early May, and his funeral was held at 9.30am on Friday in St Mary’s Cathedral, a short walk from Sydney’s Law Courts building off Macquarie Street.

The service, in front of a full house, opened with a remembrance from judge Leonie Flannery SC.

Given the number of legal eagles there to pay tribute to the popular judge, the starting times for some court hearings over at Queen’s Square were pushed back, and the murder trial of Christopher Dawson was no exception.

His matter did not resume in Supreme Court 9D until after 11.30am. Mr Dawson’s solicitor, Greg Walsh, who had been at the Zahra funeral, said it was a “beautiful service” and “a true celebration of his life”.

Many in Court D may have welcomed the morning reprieve following Thursday’s seemingly relentless blitzkrieg of often emotional and raw evidence from witness JC, the Dawson babysitter and Mr Dawson’s schoolgirl lover back in the early 1980s.

A composite showing witness JC and Christopher Dawson.

For hours, under cross-examination from defence counsel Pauline David, JC recounted her teacher Mr Dawson’s constant attentions at Cromer High, and persistently referred to his behaviour as “grooming” her. She also outlined how she went to live at the Dawson house in Bayview Heights, on Sydney’s northern beaches, on either January 10 or 11, 1982 – supposedly just two or three days after Lyn had vanished.

JC recalled she had been on a brief holiday on the NSW north coast over the New Year when Mr Dawson drove to South West Rocks, brought her back to Sydney, and took her to the family home. She told the court he said to her: “Lyn has gone, and she’s not coming back.”

That critical comment was put to the test on Friday. JC was back in the witness stand at 11.50am.

Ms David, in her cross-examination, took JC back through statements she’d made to police over the years with particular reference to this comment.

Ms David told the court that in May 1990 JC told police just that Mr Dawson said Lyn “had gone”.

David: He didn’t say she wasn’t coming back, did he? He never said to you at any stage that Lyn Dawson was not coming back.

JC: He did.

David: He simply said she’s gone.

JC: He said she’s gone and she’s not coming back.

Ms David also challenged JC’s evidence that when she came back from South West Rocks and moved into the Bayview home, she did not sleep in “Lyn’s bed” the first night and subsequent evenings, as JC told the court during the week, but that she bunked down in the “study area”.

Ms David added that Mr Dawson had made it clear to JC that if his wife returned JC would “have to move”.

“He absolutely did not,” JC replied.

Ms David further argued JC was only in the Bayview house in 1982 to “assist with the children”.

JC: He needed assistance with the children, he couldn’t cook, clean, do the washing.

David: And you wanted to be with him.

JC: No, I didn’t.

David: … your older self, you might look back and think – why did I do all that? But at the time you were very happy to do it.

JC: No, I had to look up a cookbook to learn how to do mashed potatoes with the three of them looking at me. It was an awful situation.

David: You have created an entirely imaginative scenario about your life with Mr Dawson at that time.

JC: Absolutely not.

Ms David continued to apply pressure. She loudly proclaimed to the court that JC’s allegations earlier in the week about being Mr Dawson’s sex slave were “absolutely not true”.

David: You have used that kind of language because it creates a good story, which you are wanting to sell.

JC: Sell to whom?

After just one full week of witness evidence, the Dawson trial emphatically proved one thing – as a narrative, it had it all: a schoolgirl lover, declarations of love from teacher to pupil, sex, infidelity, betrayal, allegations of revenge and intimations of psychological abuse.

It was excusable – given the torrent of evidence, particularly from JC – to occasionally lose sight of what was truly at the heart of this trial. Lynette Dawson.

In photos tendered as exhibits to the court, there is one from the mid-1960s that is striking; a black and white picture of Lyn and Chris dressed up and about to step out to a ball. Lyn had long blonde hair and is looking up at her young, tuxedoed beau.

Her face is brimming with affection, even adoration.

It would have been utterly unimaginable, when that picture was taken more than half a century ago, that in 2022 it would be an exhibit in a murder trial.

Mr Dawson has pleaded not guilty to murdering Lyn in January 1982.

The trial resumes on Monday.