After being found guilty of murdering his wife Lynette and disposing of her corpse in 1982 by Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison, the former Newtown Jets rugby league player and teacher spent Tuesday night in prison.
Justice Harrison concluded earlier this year after a judge-only trial that Dawson had lied for forty years to hide Lynette’s death. Lynette fled without ever speaking to her family, kids, friends, or coworkers again.
Mr. Dawson said throughout his trial that Lynette freely left their lovely life on Sydney’s northern beaches.
Chris Dawson was on Tuesday found guilty of murdering Lynette Dawson. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard
Chris Dawson, Lynette Dawson’s husband, murdered her, the court has determined. Image: provided.
Justice Harrison determined that the evidence of her close relationship with her kids was “totally at variance with the idea” that she left her house on her own will.
He also thought it was odd that she would have left without even changing her undergarments.
Lynette allegedly contacted Dawson on multiple times after she vanished, which was one of the main tenets of Dawson’s defense.
Dawson acknowledged that it was “very weird” that she only called him and not any of her family or friends during his police interrogation in Queensland in 1991.
In Mr. Dawson’s account, Lynette called him for the first time at the Northbridge Baths on the afternoon of January 9, 1982.
Justice Ian Harrison found that Chris Dawson made several false claims. Picture: Sky News
Chris Dawson and JC on their wedding day, two years after Lynette Dawson disappeared. Picture: Supplied
He claimed he dropped her off at a Mona Vale bus stop earlier that day before she called him at his part-time lifeguard job to say she needed time away.
‘The following few weeks I had similar phone calls from Lyn, more STD calls saying that she needed extra time,’ Dawson told police in his 1991 interview.
But Justice Ian Harrison described Dawson´s descriptions of the phone calls as ‘lacking in context’ and ‘pregnant with cliche’.
He also said that it is doubtful that a woman who had decided to flee her home would only contact the man who was responsible for her departure.
He said that Mr Dawson´s report of receiving a phone call at the Northbridge Baths on the afternoon of January 9, 1982 was a ‘lie’.
He said his version of events was contradicted by the diary of a girl who worked at the baths, who said the pool´s owner was not present on that day.
‘I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Lynette Dawson never telephoned Mr Dawson after 8 January, 1982,’ Justice Harrison said.
“That reinforces other circumstantial evidence that leads me to conclude that Lynette Dawson did not leave her home voluntarily.”
Justice Ian Harrison found that Dawson displayed a “consciousness of guilt” by making several false statements about the circumstances around Lynette´s disappearance.
Central to the case was JC, Dawson´s former student and babysitter, who moved into his family´s Gilwinga Dr home after Lynette went missing.
Early in 1982, JC travelled to South West Rocks to holiday with family and friends.
JC told the court that during one phone call, Dawson told her: ‘Lyn’s gone, she´s not coming back.’
The court heard that days after Lynette disappeared, Dawson drove to the NSW Mid North Coast to pick up the young woman and brought her back to his matrimonial Bayview home.
However, in his 1991 police interview, he stated: “I thought she was going to return to her family home, not to my home. She ended up coming and living with me because she wasn´t wanted anywhere else.”
However, Justice Harrison found that Dawson lied about her moving in with her family and that JC arrived immediately at Gilwinga Dr, where they resumed their ‘energetic sexual relationship.
Justice Harrison also found that Dawson lied about his motivation for travelling to South West Rocks, having claimed it was JC who wanted to leave.
During his marathon four and a half hour decision on Tuesday, Justice Harrison also found that Dawson lied about the events in his family home on the evening of January 8, 1982.
In his police interview, Dawson told detectives: “The day prior to Lyn leaving, there was an incident at home where she had thrown our little … our second daughter onto the bed and sort of had a bit of an emotional breakdown at the time.”
But Justice Harrison listed that as one of several lies told by Dawson in an attempt to ‘deflect’ attention away from him having murdered his wife.