The Teacher’s Pet: Lyn Dawson’s relatives appalled by ex-DPP’s remarks

Nicholas Cowdery has come under fire over ‘infuriating’ comments about the Lyn Dawson cold case.

Former NSW director of public prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery. Picture: James Croucher

Former NSW director of public prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery QC has come under fire over “infuriating” comments about the Lyn Dawson cold case made on national television.

In an interview with the ABC’s Australian Story, Mr Cowdery suggested the missing Sydney mother could be alive despite there being no trace of her for 36 years.

“Lyn Dawson disappeared. And that really is as far as I can take it in my own mind,” he told Monday night’s program.

Two coroners found, in 2001 and 2003, that Dawson was murdered by her husband, the former Newtown Jets rugby league star Chris Dawson, and that he should be prosecuted, but Mr Cowdery refused each time, citing insufficient evidence.

“Without a body, without knowing first of all whether in fact she is dead, without knowing, secondly, if she is dead, how she died, it’s very hard to mount a case with a reasonable prospect of conviction just on motive and the undefined existence of means and opportunity,” he said.

“That makes it very weak.”

Mr Cowdery’s assessment of the evidence was at odds with the opinion of other senior legal figures and was slammed by relatives yesterday.

“There’s no evidence at all that she’s alive. I just thought that was a bit of a ridiculous statement,” said Lyn’s sister, Pat Jenkins.

Former NSW deputy state coroner Carl Milovanovich, who delivered the 2003 inquest findings, has described the circumstantial evidence against Mr Dawson as “overwhelming”.

“If you put all this evidence before a jury, a jury of normal people, they would come back with a guilty verdict,” Mr Milovanovich told The Australian ’s investigative podcast series, The Teacher’s Pet.

The ABC program and a 60 Minutes report last Sunday followed the podcast, which examined Lyn’s 1982 disappearance.

Allyson Jennings, the daughter’s of Lyn’s cousin Wendy Jennings, said she was “yelling at the TV” after Mr Cowdery’s comments.

“In my opinion, it’s pretty disgusting,” Ms Jennings said.

“Police know through experience, if their bank accounts are not touched, they’re not registered anywhere, they don’t have a passport, nothing, they’re dead.

“He’s just basically dismissed that. I just found that so infuriating. He ignored the coroners, he ignored the police, and he’s fixated on ‘you have to have a body’.”

Ms Jennings said the “irony in all this” was that Mr Cowdery was the chair of White Ribbon Australia, which campaigns to prevent violence against women.

“He’s got some explaining to do. This whole case, with Lyn there and with the school, domestic violence is one of the core issues,” she said.

White Ribbon yesterday said Mr Cowdery was overseas and could not be contacted.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller, who has publicly apologised to Lyn’s family for failings in the investigation in the 1980s, separately told the program that detectives would respond differently today. “It’s challenging for me to try to reflect back 32 years ago. Was it a mistake, was it incompetence, or was it (police) corruption? I’ll never know the answer to that,” he said.

The NSW Office of the DPP is again considering if there is enough evidence to prosecute, after police provided a new brief of evidence in April.

Mr Fuller has also committed to a new search for Lyn’s remains at her former home at Bayview on Sydney’s northern beaches.

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