Teacher sex ring evading prosecution

The judge at Chris Dawson’s latest trial was not told of the extent of events ­alleged to have occurred in the 1970s and 80s.

An artist’s courtroom sketch of Chris Dawson. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Vincent de Gouw

Members of a sex ring of teachers who preyed on students on Sydney’s northern beaches have so far avoided prosecution, with the judge at Chris Dawson’s latest trial not told of the extent of events ­alleged to have occurred.

Dawson was charged with carnal knowledge of schoolgirl AB after NSW police set up Strike Force Southwood to investigate allegations in The Teacher’s Pet podcast of inappropriate teacher-student relationships at schools in the area in the 1970s and ’80s.

Besides Dawson, the strike force is known to have charged former Beacon Hill High sports teacher Lee Dunbar, who last year pleaded guilty to assaulting a 17-year-old female student and committing an act of indecency.

The 69-year-old was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order by Dawson’s former barrister Pauline David, one of her first cases after her appointment as a District Court judge.

The victim in that case had come forward about Dunbar after listening to The Teacher’s Pet.

“In 2018, the victim, then aged 55, was listening to a podcast about sexually inappropriate conduct of teachers on the northern beaches towards students,” Judge David said during sentencing. “There was much reference to a strike force … established to investigate such matters. The victim asked her husband to call that strike force, which he did, and an investigation commenced into this allegation.”

Dunbar had previously served jail time after being convicted in 1996 of a similar assault on another former student.

The podcast exposed allegations of up to 20 teachers being involved in relationships with schoolgirls in the ’70s and ’80s.

Chris Dawson’s twin, Paul Dawson, was also a schoolteacher and frequently mentioned at the carnal knowledge trial. He has never been charged with any offence and has denied wrongdoing, previously saying his relationship with a girl named “Alice” started just after she left school.

In 1998, Alice told police that in early 1981 when she was almost 16, she had sex with Paul Dawson, one of the teachers whom she knew at Forest High.

In July 1982, when Alice was 17 but still at school, Paul Dawson allegedly began arranging for her to have sex with other men.

It’s alleged Alice once went to his home when his wife, Marilyn, and their children weren’t home.

Alice was allegedly told to dress in seductive clothing and perform oral sex on a carpet cleaner who would be arriving.

On another occasion, Paul Dawson allegedly called her to his office to perform oral sex on him during school hours. He had been her sex education teacher.

The Dawsons played rugby union before switching codes to join rugby league’s Newtown Jets.

One sexual encounter allegedly arranged by Paul Dawson is said to have involved a former rugby union international.

Another former northern beaches schoolgirl, who was given the pseudonym CD at the carnal knowledge trial, gave evidence that Paul Dawson was her health teacher at Forest High in 1980 when she was in year 9 and that she became his family babysitter.

She said Chris and Paul Dawson “groomed and manipulated” both her and AB.

Former Cromer High student Phil Webster came forward early in the podcast series to share what he knew of the actions of teachers, including one who would climb through a student’s window at night.

Mr Webster became a teacher himself and was a witness at Dawson’s carnal knowledge trial, giving evidence that complainant AB was constantly with Dawson during playground duty.

He gave The Australian permission to use his name.

“The role models I had were f..king some of the girls in my year group. That’s my experience of growing up at Cromer High,” Mr Webster said.

“It wasn’t just Cromer High. It was a northern beaches thing.”

Teachers who pursued schoolgirls for sex on Sydney’s northern beaches in the ’70s and ’80s wrongly believed it was not an offence because the students were 16 years old, Mr Webster said.

Under the laws at the time, the general age of consent for girls was 16, but special rules applied when it involved teachers and their ­students, lifting the age of consent to 17.

“I can actually verify that one of the teachers who was having an ­affair basically said, mate, they’re 16, it’s not illegal,” Mr Webster told The Australian.

Mr Webster had stayed in touch with one of his former teachers, who was panicking after the release of the podcast.

“You know what he said to me? ‘Oh, you didn’t tell me you had the 30-year reunion – I would have loved to have come to that’.

“I didn’t have the guts to say ‘Your name is mud at the reunions, you were screwing some of the girls in our year’.

“People who do this are strange. People that do these sorts of things can’t be normal.

“People that think it’s OK to climb through their year 11 student’s window and f..k them on a Friday night and then teach them on the Monday aren’t normal … they can’t be.”

An update has been sought from NSW police on Strike Force Southwood and whether it will continue to operate.