Everything that happened in the Chris Dawson murder trial

The court case of the former footy star and teacher has come to an end, here's what's next.

The court case of the former footy star and teacher has come to an end, here's what's next.

Christopher Dawson admits he treated his wife Lyn horribly.

He admits as a schoolteacher courting a teenage girl, a pupil, and later having sex with her in the family home.

He claims Mrs Dawson abandoned him and their two preschool girls because she was in despair at the state of her marriage.

But, in the final contention of his defence barrister on the final day of his trial in Sydney, Dawson stands on a defence of “good character”.

NSW Supreme Court judge Ian Harrison, in response, had a question grounded in logic and common sense, that effectively asked how Dawson could maintain that claim of good character if he had taken advantage of a teenage girl.

“The crown will say that the formation of a sexual relationship with a student as a teacher certainly bears upon someone’s character,” Justice Harrison said.

“What do you say about that? If good character is an issue in this trial, and it is, I suppose all I’m saying is that’s something I have to take into the mix, don’t I?”

Defence barrister Pauline David pointed to the fact that Dawson went on to marry the teenager, known in the trial as “JC”.

Chris Dawson and JC is on their wedding day.

It was “a relationship that ­involved caring and love”, she said.

Dawson, accused of targeting the girl in the schoolyard and in his classroom, was not a person who “simply groomed her”, she said.

“It’s a man that cared about her, and that developed subsequently into a relationship of some years,” David said.

“It’s not just a man who might be utilising his position to take ­advantage of a woman about whom he didn’t particularly care.”

Justice Harrison instantly asked if Dawson used his position to take advantage of a person he did care about.

David denied Dawson took advantage of JC, but accepted there was inappropriate behaviour.

Loving two women at the same time was “a national sport” in France, David had said in her closing submissions last week.

She clarified on Monday that she had not intended to suggest Dawson’s extramarital affair and having JC in his home “was in any way appropriate or culturally or socially acceptable at all, by anyone’s standards”.

“We accept Lynette Dawson would have been understandably deeply hurt by Christopher Dawson’s behaviour involving (JC),” David said. “But we say that that is a contributor to her abandoning the home.”

Chris and Lynnette Dawson on their wedding day.

Despite there being inappropriate behaviour, “it doesn’t make him a murderer”, and the crown had not excluded the reasonable possibility that Lyn left her home.

Justice Harrison said it was a good opportunity for David to state what else might reasonably have happened to Lyn when she went missing from Bayview on Sydney’s northern beaches in January 1982.

Lynette Dawson was last seen at Mona Vale on Sydney's northern beaches in 1982.

David said there had been reported sightings of Lyn from multiple people capable of recognising her, and there were indications she had used her Bankcard after disappearing.

There was “no reason to disregard” Dawson’s claims that Lyn had phoned him to say she needed some time away.

“It all creates a picture of Lynette Dawson being alive, which the defence say the crown has not excluded,” David said.

When Ms David was done, prosecutor Craig Everson SC said Dawson had lied to police about the circumstances surrounding Lyn’s disappearance - and did so out of a consciousness of guilt.

Everson was outlining ­directions Justice Harrison could give to himself in deciding whether to convict or acquit.

In a two-page handwritten “antecedent report” provided to police in August 1982, seven months after Lyn disappeared, Dawson portrayed himself as an abandoned husband on a mission to find his wife.

Dawson made no mention in the document of his sexual relationship with JC, and blamed his marriage difficulties on Lyn’s spending.

In a missing persons report dated February 18, 1982, Dawson also made no mention of the damage to his relationship from his involvement with JC.

Omissions could be treated as lies, Everson said.

Dawson’s claim in the ­antecedent report that all of Lyn’s girlfriends had been contacted was “false” and a “deliberate untruth”.

The only person Dawson contacted was his friend Robyn Warren, Everson said.

Dawson also lied when he said he was told by detective Ian Kennedy at a school reunion that Lyn was in New Zealand, Everson said.

“He hadn’t been told anything of the sort by Ian Kennedy,” Everson said.

Justice Harrison concluded by saying: “Thank you for your ­assistance. I’ll reserve my decision and I’ll adjourn.”

Mr Dawson, now 73, was silent as he left the court.

Chris Dawson leaves the Supreme Court on Monday.

He and Lyn’s family now await a verdict that has been four decades in the making.

Justice Harrison will hand down his judgment at a later date.

Read more about the case here including how the court was told Chris Dawson 'tried to hire hit man'.