The Teacher’s Pet: Dawson ‘got all he wanted’ — house, kids, teen girlfriend

Chris Dawson depicted himself as a distraught husband desperate to find his missing wife. His in-laws say that is absolute rubbish.

Pat Jenkins with a portrait of her sister, Lyn Dawson. Picture: Holly Adams

Murder suspect Chris Dawson’s depiction of himself in a police statement as an abandoned husband desperate to find his missing wife Lyn has been rejected as a fabrication by her family and friends.

“He makes out he was a distraught husband. He didn’t care,” Lyn’s sister Pat Jenkins said ­yesterday. “He was living his life and that was the important thing to him.”

Ms Jenkins was commenting after the latest episode of The Australian’s investigative podcast ­series The Teacher’s Pet revealed the full contents of Mr Dawson’s long-lost statement to police from August 1982, seven months after his wife went missing.

The handwritten statement went missing along with the rest of the police file in the 1990s, but has been provided by a source other than police or the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions.

In it, Mr Dawson told of his calls to women’s refuges, his visit to a hospital to see if his missing wife was working there, and how he had thoughtfully placed an ­advertisement to coincide with their wedding day.

“All girlfriends have been contacted — no success. Work colleagues — Warriewood Sq. Child Minding Centre — no success,” he wrote. “I have rung women’s refuges at Manly & DY, the Salvation Army and all possible family connections have not received word from her. I placed an ad. in Telegraph to appear on 26.3.82 (Wedding Anniversary), appeared day late on 27.3.82.

“I rang RNSH staffing and was informed a Sister L. Simms (maiden name) worked in Casualty, I drove through and spoke to a Doctor I knew, he informed me that the Sister Simms didn’t fit my wife’s description.”

Two days after Lyn went missing, Mr Dawson moved his teenage lover and former student Joanne Curtis into his Bayview family home on Sydney’s northern beaches.

It took him almost six weeks to report Lyn’s disappearance to police.

Ms Jenkins said she was not aware of Mr Dawson placing an advertisement to encourage his wife’s return.

“It was mum that did everything. Mum pleaded with him. Every time she saw him, she pleaded with him, ‘You have to let the police know’,” Ms Jenkins said.

“Mum put ads in the Central Coast paper, The Sydney Morning Herald, the Telegraph, on Lyn’s birthday. I did too. And my aunt and uncle, they put ads in the papers as well. I don’t believe he did.

“He had Joanne there. He was right, he was set. It was what he wanted and what he got. I believe he hated Lyn towards the end ­because she stood between everything he wanted, which was the house, the children and Joanne. In the end he got the lot.”

Mr Dawson’s claims that Lyn contacted him by phone — but not her parents, siblings or daughters — in the days and weeks after going missing, defied belief, she said.

“In the eight days before she disappeared, five out of the eight days she had contact with Mum,” she said.

“She was staying with Mum and Dad on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Mum spoke to her on the phone on the Wednesday and on the Friday. And Lyn was supposed to meet her on the Saturday.

“And yet Mum and Dad didn’t heard from her. And supposedly she’s ringing Chris all the time. I don’t think he ever said she asked after the children either.”

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.

The Australian previously revealed Mr Dawson’s lies and omissions in his 1982 statement, in which he made no mention of his long-term sexual relationship with Ms Curtis.

His affair with the teenager had started 14 months before his wife went missing, when Ms Curtis was 16 and in Year 11 at Cromer High, where he was a physical education teacher.

In his statement, Mr Dawson blamed his marital problems on his wife’s credit-card spending.

His claims he searched for his wife were also rejected by his former neighbour Julie Andrew, who was Lyn’s friend and saw her two or three times a week before her disappearance.

“He may have contacted other people, but not me,” she said yesterday. “He knew I suspected him. He wouldn’t have come anywhere near me.”

Mr Dawson, who two coroners have found murdered his wife, has not been charged over his wife’s disappearance and maintains his innocence.

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