The Teacher’s guilt: now to crack larger sex ring
Police urged to expose a historic sex ring after convicted wife-killer Chris Dawson was found guilty of child sex offending.
NSW police are being urged to fully expose a historic sex ring of predatory teachers after convicted wife-killer Chris Dawson was found guilty of child sex offending more than 40 years after he groomed a schoolgirl and murdered first wife Lyn to be with her.
Dawson on Monday was convicted of carnal knowledge of schoolgirl “AB” after NSW police set up Strike Force Southwood to investigate allegations in The Australian’s The Teacher’s Pet podcast of inappropriate teacher-student relationships at schools in Sydney’s northern beaches in the 1970s and ’80s.
The Australian understands NSW police do not have any active investigations under way and will have to rely on witnesses who want to pursue a conviction to come forward.
Lyn Simms’s brother Greg and her sister-in-law Merilyn said the other teachers accused of being part of the sex ring now need to be exposed.
“We are delighted for AB. We just truly hope that she’s able to get on with her life now that she’s been heard and that he’s at last accountable,” Ms Simms said.
“These teachers were in a position of trust and they betrayed that trust, not only to these young students but to their parents, to the school and the community, and they need to be exposed. And the sooner the better.”
Mr Simms added: “We just hope that this conviction will give (other victims) more heart, that they too can get some sort of vindication.”
Lyn’s family has also called for an inquiry into the state education system’s handling of Dawson’s offending and the allegations around the other teachers.
Members of the sex ring of teachers – allegedly including Dawson’s twin brother, Paul – 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.
Paul Dawson has vehemently denied these allegations.
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Catch up on the trial with our podcast The Teacher’s Accuser, available now wherever you get your podcasts.
Independent MP and former northern beaches mayor Michael Regan called on authorities to deal with outstanding cases and said he would welcome an inquiry into how both police and the NSW Education Department failed to stop Chris Dawson and other teachers for more than 40 years.
Dawson had been polite and deferential throughout his trial, but as soon as judge Sarah Huggett left the courtroom after convicting him of child sex offending on Wednesday, the 74-year-old said “f..k, f..k, f..k, f..k, f..k” in a loud voice from the Long Bay jail where he had been watching proceedings via videolink.
Until then, the only words he’d spoken in his trial for unlawful carnal knowledge of a 16-year-old girl were to declare himself “Not guilty, your honour,” and respond respectfully to direct questions.
When Judge Huggett asked Dawson if he could hear and see her as the verdict hearing commenced on Wednesday morning, he said: “Yes, I can, your honour, thank you.”
But as her 2½-hour judgment stretched on and it became increasingly clear the destination was “guilty”, Dawson began to show the strain.
He dropped his head below the view of the camera, rolled his eyes, sighed heavily, shook his head and blew his nose with a tissue.
Judge Huggett made it crystal clear what she thought of him, repeatedly referencing Dawson’s tendency to describe himself to his young victim as “god”.
The verdict was a sweeping denunciation of the conduct of Dawson, whom the judge found had groomed and manipulated the young woman. “I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the accused committed the offence charged and find him guilty,” Judge Huggett said.
After the verdict, Mr and Ms Simms called for an inquiry into Education Department failures that allowed teacher-student relationships to flourish in the ’70s and ’80s. “The Education Department has a lot to answer for,” Ms Simms said. “There were so many things swept under the carpet in those days, so many cover-ups, it was disgraceful. They need to be answerable. There has to be an inquiry into all of that as well.”
The young woman, who can only be known as AB, met Dawson in 1979 when she was 15 years old and a student at Cromer High School, where he was a sports teacher. She claimed – and the judge agreed – that Dawson first noticed her when he found a topless photograph of her that had been circulating at school.
The judge found he first had sexual intercourse with her in 1980 when she was 16 and his student in an elective subject called sports coaching for year 11.
She went on to marry Dawson after he murdered Lyn in early 1982, and bore him a daughter.
AB and Dawson separated and she returned to Sydney.
She spoke to police in 1990 about Lyn’s disappearance, and gave an account of the grooming and abuse of her teenage self to a NSW Department of Education investigator in 1998.
Dawson’s defence was that they did not commence having sex until 1981, when she was 17 and no longer in his class.
The framing of the carnal knowledge offence, part of the Crimes Act, meant that this would not have been a criminal offence at the time but the judge was convinced beyond reasonable doubt that AB was telling the truth, describing her as a calm, responsive and thoughtful witness.
Dawson’s own words provided the most powerful proof of his guilt, in the judge’s assessment, including a school report where he described her as a “pleasure to teach”. The judge accepted as “entirely plausible” AB’s claim that this phrase, written by Dawson on her 1980 school report, was an allusion to sex.
Although the judge said it was “concerning” that this evidence was first mentioned by the complainant at the trial, and not in any previous statements, she added: “I find that this evidence has a ring of truth. The accused does not challenge the complainant’s evidence that on occasion he referred to himself as god.
“That the accused, a mature man, would write something (of that nature) is entirely plausible.”
The judge found Dawson went to the Time and Tide Hotel, where students and teachers gathered on Friday nights, “because he was interested and attracted to the complainant and interested in endearing himself to her.”
She rejected an attempt by Dawson’s counsel, public defender Claire Wasley, to suggest the pub visits were Dawson’s attempt to counsel and comfort AB over her troubled home life with a heavy-drinking mother and a violent stepfather. “That was why he surprised her (at the pub) and sat there talking about himself, behaviour that was consistent with a person who on occasion referred to himself as god,” the judge said.
At this, Dawson muttered and shook his head.
Two cards written by Dawson to AB were also powerful evidence pointing to guilt, the judge said.
A 17th birthday card, inscribed “Happy 17th birthday, my little chickadee”, read: “To my lovely beautiful bub, hoping today is a very happy one and knowing we will share all the birthdays to come.”
Dawson also gave her a Christmas card in 1980, saying: “Once or twice every minute, love always, God.”
The judge said AB was “a thoughtful witness who gave her evidence in a matter-of-fact and forthright way”.
“She appeared willing to provide as much detail as she could but did not appear to embellish her evidence,” she said. “At times she said things that provided insight into her state of mind in 1980 and 1981: for example that probably one of her favourite stories told by the accused was that he had seen her in the playground in year 10 and thought she was beautiful and things the accused said and did made her feel special, which suggested to me that as a teenager she was quite impressionable.”
The judge said at times she appeared keen for the proceedings to end. “However, overall she was a calm and responsive witness,” she said. “While there was obviously a relationship between the complainant and the accused, which commenced in circumstances that she believed involved grooming when she was vulnerable … I did not form an impression that the complainant was motivated by a desire to give deliberately false evidence. It’s clear to me that at times the complainant’s memory was wanting. That is hardly surprising given the significant period of time (that had elapsed).”
Lyn’s nephew David Jenkins said Chris Dawson’s conviction was a “good outcome”.
Additional reporting: Remy Varga
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