The Supreme Court judge delivering his verdict on whether Chris Dawson murdered wife Lynette has ruled that she is dead and has discounted all of the sightings of the missing woman after January 1982.
Reading through his written reasons for his verdict, Justice Ian Harrison on Tuesday described some of the evidence in Chris Dawson’s defence during the trial as ‘fanciful, absurd and lies’.
‘I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt Lynette Dawson never telephoned Christopher Dawson after 8 January 1982 and … that she did not leave her home voluntarily,’ Justice Harrison told a packed courtroom in Sydney, amid tense anticipation from members of Lynette’s family, dressed in pink, and Dawson, who was accompanied to court by his brothers.
Dawson was described during a summary of the Crown case by His Honour as ‘an unfaithful and violent man’.
The judge also said one of Chris Dawson’s relatives, his brother-in-law Ross Hutchins, had falsified an alleged sighting he had made of Lynette Dawson at Gladesville, just months after her disappearance, and that the sighting was a ‘fabrication’.
Discounting all other alleged sightings of Lynette around Australia over the years, His Honour said, ‘I am satisfied that none of the sightings were genuine.
‘I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Lynette Dawson is dead and that she died on or about 8 January 1982 and that she did not voluntarily leave her home,’ he said.
There were tense scenes as Chris Dawson and his brother Paul arrived at the NSW Supreme Court for the murder trial verdict on Tuesday. Brother Peter is in red tie
Lynette Dawson’s family (above) arrived at court dressed in pink – her favourite colour – for the trial verdict
While calmly reading out his judgment, Justice Harrison said he was willing to believe ‘beyond reasonable doubt that Chris Dawson’s evidence he had received a call from Lyn at a swimming pool on the day after his wife’s disappearance was ‘a lie’.
Justice Harrison also found that Chris Dawson’s accounts of purported phone calls from his wife after her disappearance ‘beyond reasonable doubt … are lies’.
‘I do not accept Lynette Dawson … would continue to remain in contact with the very person who was … the reason for her departure,’ Justice Harrison said. ‘The contention … is simply absurd.’
The judge described the evidence of the schoolgirl babysitter JC, with whom Chris Dawson had an affair as mostly reliable, and that her account of being groomed for a sexual relationship as believable.
‘She had been swept up … and was confused and conflicted,’ he said and found that JC’s evidence had not been corrupted by her subsequent divorce from him.
So many media and supporters attended the court verdict, a second court room was opened up to accommodate the crowd.
For the first time in the trial, the accused’s identical twin brother Paul was present at court and in a mass of media outside the court there was a brief scuffle between a cameraman and the twins’ older brother, Peter.
Peter shoved a TV cameraman and saying ‘get out of the way’ as reporters crowded their path.
Accused murderer Chris Dawson (above) at his Sunshine Coast home on Sunday before he flew to Sydney to face the judge’s verdict of his guilt or innocence in the murder of his first wife, Lynette
Chris Dawson’s daughter Shanelle – who was four years old when her mother vanished – showed her support by attending her father’s Sunshine Coast home at the weekend before he flew out to meet his fate
Chris Dawson with his daughter in the 1970s, when he was married to first wife Lyn a few years before her mysterious 1982 disappearance
Chris Dawson kept silent as he was bombarded with questions about his feelings and whether he was prepared for the possibility of jail time.
Chris Dawson had left his Sunshine Coast home in Queensland to fly to Sydney for the verdict, after spending the last seven weeks on bail while Justice Harrison deliberated on his decision.
On Sunday, as his old team Easts Rugby Union played in grand finals at Coogee Oval, Dawson had sported a club shirt and enjoyed a visit from his daughter Shanelle at his home.
Both Dawson and his identical twin brother Paul played for Easts before switching to the Newtown Jets rugby league side in 1972.
Justice Harrison conducted a judge-alone trial and is giving a lengthy summary of the reasons for his decision.
Mr Dawson, according to his defence, suffers from a fractured hip and and a possible brain injury sustained from his years playing rugby.
The verdict is also momentous for the family of Lyn Dawson, who have invested so much time and effort in seeking justice for the 33-year-old mother of two young girls who vanished without trace on January 8 or 9, 1982.
Lyn’s sister, Pat Jenkins, her brother, Greg Simms, and the missing woman’s niece Renee Simms and nephew David Jenkins have had their lives on hold for the 10-week trial, the weeks since as Justice Harrison has deliberated and, indeed, the empty decades since Lyn vanished.
Chris and Lynette Dawson (above) on their wedding day in 1970 when they appeared blissfully happy, but their marriage would hit the rocks when he took up with the teenage babysitter
His Easts supporter polo shirt is several years old, and the weekend’s results were not a conclusive portent for what was to come.
Easts beat Sydney University in third grade, levelled with old rival Randwick in an 13-all draw in the same division, and won 21-17 against Randwick in the first grade Colts.
Daily Mail Australia understands Dawson is not a club member and hasn’t been to Easts clubhouse since 2009.
Chris Dawson, 74, (above) pictured on the Sunshine Coast last weekend before returning to Sydney for the verdict on his trial for murder
Chris and Lynette Dawson were together for 17 years and married for twelve when she vanished seemingly off the face of the earth in January 1982 after his affair with a schoolgirl
The trial heard Chris Dawson was ‘besotted ‘ with JC, the schoolgirl babysitter who became his second wife and testified at his trial about his controlling behaviour
Mr Dawson’s eldest daughter Shanelle, who was four when her mother disappeared was pictured packing her car as she left his house on Sunday, after publicly revealing she still loves her dad.
Four years ago, Shanelle had broken down on national television, saying ‘It’s not looking good for my father, I will be honest to say’.
Chris Dawson was arrested and charged with Lyn Dawson’s murder in late 2018, pleaded not guilty to the charge and has always maintained his innocence.
Lynette Dawson’s disappearance from her Bayview home on Sydney’s northern beaches was the subject of the hit podcast, The Teacher’s Pet, which was played during the lengthy trial.
During the trial, crown prosecutor Craig Everson SC claimed Mr Dawson’s motivation for murdering his first wife and disposing of her body was to have an ‘unfettered relationship’ with a school student, known in court as JC, who became their teenage babysitter.
The family of Lynette Dawson has been asking for years about her disappearance and whatever the verdict on Tuesday, they still hold out hopes of her remains being found
Chris Dawson and Lynette Simms as young sweethearts before their engagement and marriage which would culminate in her disappearance in 1982
The court heard that Mr Dawson, who was twice JC’s age, became utterly infatuated with her and conducted a sexual affair, eventually moving her into the family home after Lyn vanished.
Lynette Dawson’s body has never been found and Mr Everson’s circumstantial case included that the accused had disposed of her during a ‘window of quiet seclusion’ sometime before or after meeting Lyn’s mother at the pool, and collecting JC from northern NSW.
The trial heard two separate allegations of Mr Dawson suggesting he hire a hitman to kill Lyn, one by a former Newtown Jets team-mate and one by JC, who became his second wife.
JC told the court repeatedly Mr Dawson had ‘groomed’ her, then ‘installed’ her in the house and the marital bed, where she became ‘a sex slave’, as well as housekeeper and mother to his two daughters.
Lynette Dawson with Chris in the early years of their romance when she had fallen in love with the football star and they planned a life together which would be cut short in 1982
Lynette’s two daughter Sherryn and Shanelle posed for photographs by a portrait artists who would produce charming drawings of the girls, only to discover that Lyn had vanished and Chris didn’t want them
In the house were all of Lyn’s belongings, including wedding and engagement rings, clothes, eyewear and her nursing badges.
Friends, colleagues, neighbours and an employee of Lynette Dawson testified they had seen her with bruises, heard her claim her husband had assaulted her, or witnessed him doing so.
Mr Dawson’s barrister, Pauline David, argued that the young mother had simply up and left and had gone away of her own free will, and was still alive after not contacting her mother or other family since January 1982.
Ms David cited five alleged sightings, including in the Sydney suburb of at Gladesville, working at a hospital, at a hotel near Lake Macquarie and crossing the road during Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ 1983 royal tour.
Ms David surmised Lyn Dawson could have ‘created a new life’, met with misadventure and since died, and even committed suicide.
Lyn Dawson’s family flagged the fact that despite the conclusion of the trial with Justice Harrison’s verdict, they will not ever give up on finding her remains.
Nephew David Jenkins tweeted last weekend, ‘After 40 years, on Tuesday we’ll find out whether the evidence against Lyn ‘s (accused) murderer was strong enough.
‘Either way, this isn’t over until we have Lyn home.’