Teacher’s Pet: sex with students rife at suspect’s school, says former vice-captain

At least six male teachers were having sex with teen girls at the high school where murder suspect Chris Dawson taught.

Robyn Wheeler, former vice-captain of Cromer High, says teachers took advantage of young girls. Picture: Liam Driver

At least six male teachers were having sex with teenage girls at a Sydney high school around the time murder suspect Chris Dawson taught there in the 1980s, ­according to a former student.

Robyn Wheeler, a past Cromer High vice-captain, said a “pack” of teachers took advantage of young girls. She believes the school knew about their predatory behaviour but failed to stop it.

So bad was the situation that some of the girls’ mothers confronted teachers and threatened to destroy their careers and reputations unless they backed off.

One teacher would climb through a student’s window at night to be with her. In later life, Ms Wheeler witnessed the ­damage inflicted on the women involved.

Ms Wheeler came forward after listening to the first episode of The Australian’s podcast series, The Teacher’s Pet, investigating the 1982 disappearance of Lynette Dawson.

Two separate coroners said in 2001 and 2003 that Dawson was murdered by her husband, Chris, a former star rugby league player and physical education teacher, but he was not charged and maintains he is innocent.

While employed at Cromer High, Mr Dawson was in a sexual relationship with 16-year-old student Joanne Curtis, moving her into his home at Bayview on Sydney’s northern beaches just two days after his wife went missing.

The second episode of the podcast series, released today, reveals sexual relationships between students and teachers at the school were rife.

“The culture at the school was such that there were groups of men, male teachers, in their 20s and 30s who preyed on young girls at the school — 15, 16, 17-year-old girls,” Ms Wheeler said.

“You would see them talking all the time, when there were sporting trips or school trips for whatever reason, they would be in the teachers’ car, they would be babysitting for the teachers.”

She added: “I’ve contacted you because I knew it was going on and many other people knew it was going on, not just with Chris Dawson and Joanne Curtis, it was going on with other teachers and students at the school.”

Ms Wheeler was a Cromer High student from 1979 to 1983, becoming vice-captain in her final year. Asked how many male teachers were having sex with students in the early 1980s, she said: “At least six. Some girls’ mothers had intervened and I know some of them had been up at the school threatening to cause reputational damage or report the teachers, effectively telling them to back off and leave their daughters alone. It was the same teachers pretty much year after year.”

Ms Wheeler as a Cromer student ... ‘there were groups of men, male teachers, in their 20s and 30s who preyed on young girls at the school — 15, 16, 17-year-old girls’

Providing the names of the teachers, she added that the relationship between Mr Dawson and Joanne was common knowledge.

1970-1979

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Chris Dawson marries Lynette Simms, both aged 21. They have two children and Chris begins working as a PE teacher at Cromer High School.

1980

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Chris begins a secret affair with Joanne Curtis, 16, his student, soon after introducing her to his family as the babysitter. He starts asking her to marry him.

1981

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Lyn is persuaded by Chris to let Joanne move into their family home as the teenager's step father is violent. Lyn discovers the relationship.

December, 1981

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

With his marriage to Lyn in trouble, Chris flees Sydney with Joanne to start a new life in Queensland, but along the way Joanne changes her mind and wants to take a break. They return to Sydney.

January, 1982

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Joanne goes camping with her sister and school friends to mark the end of year 12. Chris and Lyn attend marriage counselling together. On January 8, Lyn speaks with her mother on the phone. The next day, Lyn fails to meet her family at Northbridge Baths as planned.

January 10-11, 1982

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

One or two days after Lyn's no-show at the pool, Chris drives up the Central Cost to pick up Joanne and they return to Sydney. He asks Joanne to move in with him. He does not report Lyn missing until almost six weeks later.

1983-1985

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Chris divorces the missing Lyn and marries Joanne. The couple move to Queensland and have a daughter together. They separate in 1990 and Joanne returns to Sydney. She contacts Lyn's family and police and provides information about Chris and Lyn.

1992-2000

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Areas of the Dawsons' former Sydney home are excavated by police on different occasions, and a woman's cardigan is found, in pieces and bearing what appear to be slash marks. Forensic testing does not make a positive match with Lyn.

2001-2003

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Two inquests are held into Lyn's disappearance. Two coroners find she was murdered by someone known to her. Chris does not appear at either inquest. The DPP does not support a prosecution for murder or the laying of charges, citing a lack of evidence.

2010-2014

Timeline: Lyn Dawson

Rewards of up to $200,000 are offered for information to help solve the case.

“He was such a huge man, he was a very athletic man, he was tall, and he was extremely heavy set,” she said. “He was a bit of a rock star because of his physical presence and also his reputation as a first-grade footballer.

“Joanne wasn’t nasty, she was nice. Girls of 15, 16, 17 are really vulnerable and to have a man of that stature and celebrity power preying on her, I don’t think she would have had too much choice.”

Hylton Mace, the deputy headmaster in those years, has left no doubt about his opinion of teachers who had sex with students. “I think it’s terrible. Pathetic. Totally abhorrent,” he said in an interview for the podcast.

Now in his early 90s, he has for the first time spoken publicly about his knowledge of Mr Dawson’s relationship with his student, saying Joanne’s mother came to see him because her grades and behaviour had deteriorated.

Podcast: The Teacher’s Pet

Murder suspect and former rugby league footballer Chris Dawson, who was a teacher at Cromer, with his wife, Lyn, and their daughter. Lyn went missing in 1982.

A week or two later, he was made aware that Mr Dawson was in his office with Joanne and had the door shut. “I told Chris Dawson that what he was doing was not acceptable,” Mr Mace said.

“He told me that I had a dirty mind. Well I thought he had a dirty mind. And I said, ‘Well all I can say is that that’s to stop’.”

A short time later, Joanne was back in Mr Dawson’s office, this time with the door slightly ajar.

“I was extremely upset that he had ignored what I said to him,” Mr Mace said.

“Anyway, I told him I’d take it further if it happened again.”

A few weeks later, Mr Dawson went to Mr Mace’s office and asked for a reference.

“I said I wasn’t prepared to write one for him and he left the room, very angrily,” Mr Mace said.

That position didn’t change, even when the president of the high school principals association called to lobby for Mr Dawson.

Former Cromer High student Joanne Curtis babysat the Dawson girls and moved in with Mr Dawson two days after his wife disappeared.

Yet when it came to suspicions of romantic relationships between staff and impressionable young girls, he conceded he “wasn’t in a position to follow up”.

“As a deputy with a school of 1300 kids, you are not in a position to do any detective work on finding out exactly what is going on,” he said.

True crime podcast 'The Teacher’s Pet' has shone light on the 36-year unsolved murder of Lynette Dawson.

Hedley Thomas who investigated and wrote the podcast joins us, along with Lynettes niece, Rene Sims. pic.twitter.com/9T9gC7hYa1

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) May 26, 2018

When word reached him about students drinking with teachers at the local Time and Tide Hotel, he was disappointed. “I was told about it but what can I do?” Mr Mace said. “I can’t tell a grown-up man not to go and have a drink in a pub. I mean, your civil liberties are coming into it at a certain point.

“And if you’re involved in a school, you’re so busy. You’ve got no chance of chasing up every member of staff who might be drinking or having some … out-of-school liaison with a student.”

Ms Wheeler said Lyn’s family — in particular her daughters, 2 and 4 when she went missing — deserved to know what happened.

Do you know more about Lyn Dawson’s disappearance? Contact [e-mail].