Chris Dawson dons the rugby jersey of his former team as his daughter helps him pack on what could be his last day of freedom before learning his fate in a sensational case. Teacher’s Pet murder trial
Tuesday will reveal whether or not Chris Dawson is convicted of his wife’s murder.
At 10 a.m., the 74-year-old will appear before Justice Ian Harrison and get a verdict.
Justice Harrison will instruct the former football player to stand while he reads the verdict.
It will be a difficult day for Lynette Dawson and the families of the accused.
The former physical education instructor has denied killing Lyn in 1982 for 40 years.
Lyn’s eldest daughter visited him before to the verdict to show her support
Chris Dawson will discover on Tuesday if he is likely to die in prison or if he will finally be exonerated from a lifetime of suspicion.
In 10 a.m., judge Ian Harrison SC of the NSW Supreme Court will enter court 13A at Queens Square in Sydney to convict or acquit Mr. Dawson on the charge of 1982 murder of his first wife Lynette Joy Dawson.
On Sunday, while his former team Easts Rugby Union competed in the grand finals at Coogee Oval, Dawson wore a club shirt while enjoying a visit from his daughter Shanelle at his Sunshine Coast, Queensland, residence.
Prior to going to the Newtown Jets rugby league team in 1972, both Dawson and his identical twin brother Paul played for Easts.
Chris Dawson (above) visits his Sunshine Coast house on Sunday as he prepares to journey to Sydney to learn whether or not he is found guilty of killing his first wife, Lynette.
Chris Dawson, sporting a football shirt from his former Easts Rugby team, will get the verdict on his wife’s 1982 murder on Tuesday.
Chris Dawson with his daughter in the 1970s, when he was married to Lyne a few years before her disappearance in 1982.
Justice Harrison, who presided over a judge-alone trial, had the option of announcing Dawson’s innocence or guilt at the beginning of the proceedings, or after a lengthy summary of his reasons.
However, at some point he will invite Mr. Dawson, age 74, to stand when His Honor reads the fate-determining words.
If the verdict is “not guilty,” he may leave the courtroom and return to Queensland with his third wife, Sue, if not to obscurity, at least to a sense of tranquility.
It would be the first time since the first coroner concluded in 2001 that Mr. Dawson, a “known person,” had killed Lynette that he would be able to throw the legal monkey off his back.
Mr. Dawson can expect to be handcuffed by NSW prison officers, taken down to the cells, placed in a prison van, and transported to the vast Silverwater Correctional Complex in Sydney’s west, where he would be strip-searched, exchange his suit for prison greens, and be assigned a cell if Justice Harrison finds him guilty.
Shanelle Dawson, who was four years old when her mother disappeared, showed her support by visiting her father’s Sunshine Coast house over the weekend before he faces his fate.
Lynette Dawson (above with Shanelle) struggled to conceive and adored her two girls with Chris Dawson, ages four and two at the time of her disappearance in 1982.
Mr. Dawson, whose defense attorney claims he has a damaged hip and a suspected brain impairment from years of playing rugby, might spend his waning years in prison and die there if he is found guilty.
The verdict will also be significant for the family of Lyn Dawson, who have spent so much time and energy seeking justice for the 33-year-old mother of two small kids who mysteriously disappeared on January 8 or 9, 1982.
Pat Jenkins, Greg Simms, Renee Simms, and David Jenkins, Lyn’s niece and nephew, had their lives on pause during the 10-week trial, the seven weeks that followed as Justice Harrison deliberated, and, indeed, the decades after Lyn disappeared.
Chris and Lynette Dawson (above) on their wedding day in 1970, when they appeared to be blissfully happy; nonetheless, their marriage would deteriorate as a result of his affair with their teenage babysitter.
His Easts polo shirt is many years old, and if the weekend’s results were any indication of what tomorrow will bring, they were inconclusive.
Easts defeated Sydney University in third grade, tied with old rivals Randwick 13-all in the same category, then defeated Randwick in first grade Colts by a score of 21-17.
According to the Daily Mail Australia, Dawson is not a club member and has not visited easts clubhouse since 2009.
Chris Dawson, man 74, will either leave court legally free or be transported in handcuffs to Silverwater prison, where he faces the possibility of dying in prison.
Chris and Lynette Dawson had been together for 17 years and married for 12 when she mysteriously disappeared in January 1982, following his affair with a schoolgirl.
The trial heard that Chris Dawson was “infatuated” with JC, the schoolgirl nanny who became his second wife and testified about his domineering behavior.
Shanelle, the eldest daughter of Mr. Dawson, was four years old when her mother vanished and was photographed packing her car as she left her father’s home on Sunday, after announcing publicly that she still loves her father.
Four years ago, Shanelle sobbed on national television and candidly stated, “It does not look promising for my father.”
Chris Dawson was arrested and charged with the murder of Lyn Dawson in late 2018, entered a not guilty plea, and has always maintained his innocence.
The disappearance of Lynette Dawson from her Bayview home on Sydney’s northern beaches was the topic of the popular podcast The Teacher’s Pet, which was broadcast during the lengthy trial.
During the trial, crown prosecutor Craig Everson SC stated that Mr. Dawson’s objective for murdering his first wife and disposing of her body was to have a “unrestricted connection” with JC, their adolescent babysitter and school student.
The family of Lynette Dawson has inquired for years about her disappearance, and regardless of Tuesday’s ruling, they continue to hold out hope that her remains will be discovered.
Before her abduction in 1982, Chris Dawson and Lynette Simms were youthful sweethearts before to their engagement and marriage, which culminated in her disappearance.
The court heard that Mr. Dawson, who was twice as old as JC, had a sexual affair with her and finally moved her into the family home after Lyn disappeared.
Mr. Everson’s circumstantial argument included that the accused disposed of Lynette Dawson’s body during a “period of calm seclusion” sometime before or after meeting Lyn’s mother at the pool and retrieving JC from northern NSW.
Mr. Dawson was accused by a former Newtown Jets teammate and his second wife, JC, separately of urging that he hire a hitman to kill Lyn.
JC repeatedly told the court that Mr. Dawson had “groomed” her, then “placed” her in the house and marital bed, where she became “a sex slave” in addition to being the housekeeper and mother of his two girls.
Lynette Dawson and Chris during the early years of their relationship, when she fell in love with the football star and they planned a life together that was cut short in 1982.
Sherryn and Shanelle, the two daughters of Lynette, posed for a portrait artist who would create exquisite paintings of the girls, only to realize that Lyn had vanished and Chris did not want them.
The residence included all of Lyn’s possessions, including her wedding and engagement rings, clothing, eyewear, and nursing badges.
Friends, coworkers, neighbors, and an employee of Lynette Dawson testified that they had seen her with bruises, heard her allege that her husband had assaulted her, or saw him commit the act.
Pauline David, the attorney for Mr. Dawson, maintained that the young mother had left of her own own and was still alive despite not having contacted her mother or other family members since January 1982.
Ms. David cited five alleged encounters during Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ 1983 royal tour, in the Sydney suburb of Gladesville, at a hospital, in a hotel near Lake Macquarie, and across the road.
Ms. David hypothesized that Lyn Dawson may have “formed a new life,” met with misfortune, died, and possibly committed suicide.
Regardless of the outcome, Lyn Dawson’s family will continue to search for her.
On the weekend, nephew David Jenkins tweeted, “After 40 years, on Tuesday we’ll learn whether the evidence against Lyn’s (alleged) murderer was sufficient.
Regardless, this situation won’t be resolved until Lyn returns home.