Chris Dawson says ex-student made up school sex report claims, trial told

Chris Dawson’s accuser at his carnal knowledge trial invented a claim about a double meaning in a school report card, his defence suggests.

Former Sydney school teacher Chris Dawson, serving a 24-year prison sentence for murder, has pleaded not guilty to a separate charge of having sex with a 16-year-old student in 1980.Picture: NCA NewsWire / Vincent de Gouw

Convicted wife killer Chris Dawson’s former student and accuser at his carnal knowledge trial invented a claim about a double meaning in a school report card, his defence suggests.

The woman, who went on to marry Dawson and is known by the pseudonym AB at the trial, was also mistaken about him obtaining a topless photo of her, the defence says.

The fourth day of Dawson’s trial was devoted to the grilling of AB by his barrister, public defender Claire Wasley, who sought to dismantle the alleged victim’s evidence including her timeline of events.

For a second consecutive day, AB became emotional during questioning, but stuck firmly to her evidence that she started having sex with Dawson in 1980.

That was when she was 16 and Dawson was her year 11 sports teacher at Cromer High on Sydney’s northern beaches.

Ms Wasley put it to AB in cross-examination that she “made up” a claim that there was a double meaning to his comment in a late-1980 school report card that she was a “pleasure to teach”.

“That’s garbage,” AB responded.

Chris Dawson and his former student, known as AB at the carnal knowledge trial.

She previously gave evidence at the trial that Dawson was covertly referring in the report card to teaching her how to engage in sexual activity.

This week at the trial was the first time AB had made the claim about the report card in any official context relating to investigations into Dawson, the court was told.

Ms Wasley said that if it really did have a double meaning, AB would have included it in a previous statement.

“It did happen,” AB said.

“That is what that phrase means.”

AB also previously gave evidence that Dawson obtained a topless photo of her in 1979 when she was in year 10.

Ms Wasley suggested the photo incident did not happen that year.

“Well, it did,” AB said.

Ms Wasley raised in court a statement AB gave on June 12, 1998, to a NSW Education Department official, Pat Clear, who was investigating a report that Dawson had behaved improperly with her.

AB said in the statement that the first time she had any contact with Dawson was in 1980, when she was in year 11.

AB told the court her statement could be read in different ways, and she may have been referring to the fact Dawson only became her teacher in 1980.

“We weren’t getting into any nitty-gritty in this thing, this statement,” AB said.

Ms Wasley continued to challenge the topless photo evidence, telling the court that AB later made a separate police statement about the disappearance of Dawson’s first wife, Lynette Simms.

In that statement, AB said she did not have any contact with Dawson in year 10 because he did not take her class.

“The intimate, disgusting details were not a factor in this statement,” AB said.

Ms Wasley said AB had never mentioned the topless photo incident in her various statements before her evidence this week at the carnal knowledge trial.

“That may be the case, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true,” AB said. “Of course I’ve reflected on everything ever since.

“And you naturally remember different things at different times.

“That’s human nature, I would have thought.”

A comment on AB's 1980 report card in which Chris Dawson describes her as a "pleasure to teach". Picture: Supplied.

AB questioned why a separate statement she signed in January 2019 as part of a civil claim became part of the carnal knowledge trial. Judge Sarah Huggett told AB that the Crown had a duty to disclose material, and unless there was an objection based on evidence being impermissible or unfair, questions would continue to be asked “and need to be answered”.

AB had not mentioned the topless photo in the civil statement, part of a claim she launched against the NSW Education Department over her treatment as a student.

When AB became teary, Ms Wasley clarified that she was only suggesting an incident with the photo occurred at a later time.

AB conceded it may have been at the start of year 11.

“Memories are fickle things and you don’t know when they’re going to come up,” she said.

AB denied asking Dawson to tell a young supermarket trolley boy to leave her alone, or asking him to join her at the Time and Tide Hotel at Dee Why in Sydney’s north because she was worried about what her stepfather would do when she got home.

Ms Wasley also suggested any marriage proposals and notes placed in AB’s school bag occurred when she was in year 12, not in year 11 as she had testified. AB denied it.

“That was part of his plan to suck me in, was to let me know he needed me so much that he had to propose marriage to me when I was 16,” she said.

The proposals happened over and over again until she submitted, AB said.

Dawson and AB married in 1984, two years after the disappearance of his wife, Lyn.

Dawson was last year convicted of Lyn’s murder and is serving a 24-year prison sentence.