Teacher’s Pet: ‘Why did police sit on Lyn Dawson evidence?’

Lyn Dawson’s furious relatives demand explanation for why police sat on damning evidence involving her husband.

Lyn Dawson’s brother Greg Simms. Picture: Hollie Adams

Lyn Dawson’s family is demanding a full explanation on why police sat on a handwritten statement by her husband and suspected killer, Chris Dawson, for years before taking it to prosecutors.

Mr Dawson’s statement to police of August 1982 is highly significant new evidence because of his lies and omissions about key facts, including his relationship with a former schoolgirl lover, Joanne Curtis.

Lyn’s brother, Greg Simms, yesterday said the family felt “incensed, frustrated and hugely let down”, slamming police and the DPP for a litany of failures.

“As a family, we are too trusting, accepting and compliant in relation to Chris, the police and the DPP. We trusted the professionalism of the police and thought they would be looking after Lyn’s case from day one. Clearly, this belief was to our detriment,” he said.

After The Australian found the damning statement in a government records repository and revealed its existence in a recent episode of The Teacher’s Pet , an ongoing investigative podcast series, police told Lyn’s surprised family they already held the document. They told Mr Simms, the document came to the attention of the NSW Unsolved Homicide Unit in 2015 — but it was not immediately provided to the DPP.

The statement had previously been lost or overlooked by detectives and was not given to two coroners who, in 2001 or 2003, found that Lyn was murdered by her husband when the mother of two small girls vanished 36 years ago from Bayview on Sydney’s northern beaches.

The statement has not been part of the brief of evidence considered by the former Director of Public Prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery QC, or his successor, Lloyd Babb SC, both of whom have refused police efforts to prosecute Mr Dawson for murder.

Police recently told Lyn’s family they gave the Dawson statement to the DPP only this year, as part of a new evidence for prosecutors to consider if there was enough evidence to lay charges.

The Australian discovered the statement in a sealed file in storage with NSW State Archives and Records during research for The Teacher’s Pet. Lyn’s family was not aware it existed until it was revealed on the podcast.

Highly experienced legal figures say it is powerful new evidence, adding weight to a growing public campaign for police and prosecutors to charge Mr Dawson with his wife’s murder.

“Due to the overwhelming information that has come forward through the podcast, the mounting and strong public support and the astounding support of some very high-profile journalists … we now want to demand answers and action,” Mr Simms said. Each piece of evidence “must be followed up and assumptions should not be made without checking”.

“We need urgent attention to this matter.

“We will no longer settle for silence or lack of information. We have waited too long for justice.”

He said it was time for the DPP and the police to admit their mistakes and urged Police Commissioner Mick Fuller to “personally look into the historic bumbling”.

NSW police refused to confirm when they gave Mr Dawson’s statement to the DPP or to say when and how it was obtained.

Homicide Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Scott Cook said his team “has been working tirelessly since 2015 to bring the matter to a successful conclusion … Should criminal proceedings be commenced in relation to this matter, it is vital that any prosecution can proceed in the proper way.

“It is not in the interests of the victim, her family, or justice, for the NSW Police Force to make further comment at this time.”