Teacher’s Pet podcast: suspicion and secrets at Cromer High

A former deputy principal suspected soon after Lyn Dawson went missing that her husband was responsible for her disappearance | LISTEN

Michelle Walsh outside her old school, Northern Beaches Secondary College, formerly Cromer High School. Picture: James Croucher

Former Cromer High School deputy principal Hylton Mace suspected soon after Lyn Dawson went missing that she had met with foul play at the hands of her schoolteacher husband Chris.

Mr Mace said his concerns were shared by other teachers at the school, where Mr Dawson, a former Newtown Jets rugby league star, worked at the time.

But Mr Mace told The Australian he did not believe it was a matter for teachers to raise with police on Sydney’s northern beaches.

“I was a little bit suspicious quite early, that he could have been involved in her disappearance,” Mr Mace said. “And that wasn’t just my feeling, it was a feeling of quite a few members of staff.

“I didn’t feel it was the duty of any teacher to make an investigation or any statement in regard to what was going on in that regard.

“I thought, well, that’s the police’s job. And I feel strongly that now. I was told the police were very, very slack in following up Lyn’s disappearance.”

It comes as a former Cromer High student told of being confronted by Mr Dawson after she discovered Lyn was missing, warning her: “Keep your mouth shut.”

Michelle Walsh had just started Year 10 when she came across a dazed and distraught teacher, Lesley Bush, in the school’s gym in 1982.

Ms Bush was one of Mr Dawson’s closest allies at the school, where both worked as physical education teachers when Lyn vanished in January of that year.

“Her emotional state was just bad. She was shaking. She was crying,” Ms Walsh said. “Basically what she said to me was that Lyn had gone missing. That was her words. Lyn had gone missing.”

Usually bright and bubbly, Ms Bush was so upset it was unclear the teacher even knew who she was speaking to.

When Ms Walsh walked out of the gym, Mr Dawson was waiting outside and demanded to know what had been discussed.

“He just kept wanting to know what she said to me and I said ‘look she’s just upset, she just didn’t really make any sense’.

“And then he told me to keep my mouth shut in a really aggressive (way) … and walked away.”

Ms Walsh was interviewed for a new episode of The Australian’s investigative podcast series The Teacher’s Pet , out today.

She said Ms Bush, affectionately known as “Bushy”, suffered a breakdown after finding out about Lyn’s disappearance and left the school suddenly that year.

“She was never the same. She was always just teary and just really out of sorts,’’ Ms Walsh said.

Mr Dawson also left the school in the first half of the year, with the NSW Department of Education quietly transferring him to another northern beaches public school, Beacon Hill High.

Despite her close working relationship with Mr Dawson, police did not take a statement from Ms Bush.

She died about 15 years ago after battling meningitis.

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.

Ms Walsh contacted Crime Stoppers earlier this year to pass on the information for the first time. The next day she also phoned a Sydney homicide detective who now has carriage of the case, Daniel Poole. “I said ‘did anybody interview Lesley Bush’ and he said ‘I’ve never heard of her’,” Ms Walsh said.

After Ms Walsh was mentioned briefly earlier in the podcast series, she was contacted by the detective and provided a statement at Manly police station last week.

Two coroners found, in 2001 and 2003, that Mr Dawson murdered his wife. But he was not charged and strenuously maintains his innocence.

Like other former students, Ms Walsh knew of Mr Dawson’s ­affair with Cromer High student Joanne Curtis at the time. The sexual relationship began in 1980 when Ms Curtis was 16 and in Year 11.

“It’s strange for us now when we all talk about it, how for us it was nothing. We didn’t really ever think about her and how wrong it was. It was just paraded through the school,’’ Ms Walsh said.

“She was like a trophy. And she was sort of someone everyone looked up to because she was going out with Chris Dawson.”

Before the schoolyard confrontation, Ms Walsh had been on friendly terms with Mr Dawson.

“It was such a shock to me ­because it was the first time he’d ever got angry with me,” she said.

“He was probably one of my favourite teachers … and he used to really like us.

“My girlfriend, talking to her now, says ‘Oh God the stuff he used to say was so inappropriate’.

“But it used to just go over my head. We just were probably the next group coming through that would have been targeted.”

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