Teacher’s Pet: Podcast key part of bid to have Chris Dawson case thrown out
Accused wife-killer Chris Dawson’s legal team will use The Australian’s podcast The Teacher’s Pet in an attempt to prevent their client having to stand trial.
Accused wife-killer Chris Dawson’s legal advisers have indicated they will use The Australian’s award-winning podcast The Teacher’s Pet in an attempt to prevent their client having to stand trial for murder.
Dawson, a former Sydney teacher who denies the 1982 murder of his wife Lynette, will put all transcripts of the podcast and some of the sound recordings before the NSW Supreme Court as part of his bid to have the case thrown out.
The 71-year-old appeared briefly in court via video-link for a procedural hearing on Wednesday due to coronavirus isolation restrictions before the case was adjourned until July 13.
Philip Boulton SC, who is representing Dawson, told the court the retiree was seeking a permanent stay of proceedings due to “incompetencies” in the police investigation and the “contamination and collusion” of evidence.
That alleged contamination includes the effect the popular true-crime podcast had on key witnesses and potential jurors.
One witness came forward only after the podcast was published, the court heard.
“All of the transcripts of the podcast will be relied on and we will probably also rely on some of the sound as well,” Mr Boulton told the court.
His lawyers also argue Dawson won’t get a fair trial before a jury “because of the way in which the investigation was conducted by the police and the way a de facto investigation was undertaken by members of the media”.
The 2018 series was among the most downloaded Australian podcasts in history and won journalist Hedley Thomas and producer Slade Gibson a Gold Walkley. Lynette Dawson’s disappearance from her home on Sydney’s northern beaches was also the subject of a 2019 book by lawyer Rebecca Hazel.
The Crown argues Dawson is overplaying the significance of the impacts of Hazel and Thomas’s works.
Additional reporting: AAP
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