No proof Lynette is dead, Chris Dawson’s lawyers claim in court

Lynette Dawson vanished more than 40 years ago but there is no proof she is dead, lawyers for accused killer Chris Dawson have claimed in court.

Accused killer Chris Dawson’s defence team has told the Supreme Court that the prosecution has not yet proved his missing wife Lynette Dawson is dead.

Dawson’s barrister Pauline David on Friday challenged a statement made in 1999 by an officer in the police missing person’s unit that police had made searches of government departments, immigration and banking institutions and found no evidence the mother-of-two was alive.

Crown prosecutor Craig Evererson SC sought to tender the statement from the officer, Karen Dawson (no relation to Chris) as he said that central to the prosecution case was to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms Dawson died on or about January 8, 1982.

Former Newtown Jets player Dawson, 67, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Lynette who disappeared, aged 33, from their home in Sydney’s Northern Beaches on January 9 that year.

Her body has never been found.

Chris Dawson and Lynette Dawson pictured in a photo tendered to the NSW Supreme Court. Picture: Supplied.

Dawson claims that she had just walked out of their marriage, leaving their two daughters behind.

The prosecution alleges that Dawson murdered her so he could move his young lover, known only as JC, who he met when she was a Year 11 student, into their home.

Chris Dawson arrives at the Supreme Court, Sydney on June 17. Picture: Damian Shaw

Ms David said the missing person’s unit’s statement of “proof of life” checks was “hearsay” and “vague” because it was only a summary of the searches made by police and there were no details of the actual documents searched.

Instead, the constable who asked for the searches to be done had relied on what the various agencies had told her, the court heard.

The officer in charge of the investigation, retired policeman Damian Loone, said that in the late 1990s, he had been asked to investigate Ms Dawson’s disappearance and believed it was a homicide after he interviewed JC, who had gone onto marry and divorce Dawson.

But he said that he had kept an open mind during the investigation and never considered it a waste of time to investigate any reports that Ms Dawson was alive through a number of alleged sightings.

Retired officer Damian Loone arrives at the Supreme Court to give evidence. Picture: Damian Shaw

Justice Ian Harrison, who is hearing the trial without a jury, deferred the tender of the former Constable Dawson’s crucial statement until it could be determined the prosecution case could be “advanced” in that area.

“It is notorious that Lynette Dawson’s body has not been located or recovered so as to require the Crown to establish... that she is not alive,” Justice Harrison said.

“It is obviously an issue in these proceedings for the Crown to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Lynette Dawson is dead...that is a fundamental part of the prosecution.”

The former Detective Sergeant Loone, who retired from the police last year, continues to give evidence.

Originally published as No proof Lynette is dead, Chris Dawson’s lawyers claim in court