Wild moment During hectic events outside court, a TV reporter mistakes Chris Dawson for his twin and asks him how he feels about being convicted of murder. “I’m Paul, dummy.”
Chris Dawson convicted of killing his wife
Dawson
PE teacher has denied killing Lyn for 40 years.
The 74-year-old flew from Queensland to confront judgment.
Dramatic court scenes as Justice Ian Harrison rules on ex-footballer
Peter and Paul fought with media outside the Supreme Court.Paul and Peter Dawson scuffled with reporters outside the NSW Supreme Court, prompting police to interfere as they tried to reach a train station.
Chris Dawson, 74, was found guilty of murdering his first wife Lynette Dawson 40 years ago so he could continue his romance with their teenage babysitter, JC.
As they exited court in disbelief on Tuesday, reporters, photographers, and police officers surrounded them.
Gabriella Power mistaken Paul for his identical twin brother Chris and urged Peter to assist find Lynette’s body.
“I’m Paul, you fool,” he tells a reporter who asks how he feels about “going to jail” and whether he has anything to say to Lynette’s family.
Paul’s older brother Peter tells him to ‘breathe’ when he asks if he has anything to say about Silverwater.
A police officer intervened when a photographer approached Paul’s missing wife Marilyn (pictured)
Gabriella Power mistaken Paul with his twin brother Chris, causing Peter to brawl with her.
Moments later, a police officer intervenes as a photographer approaches Paul’s lost wife Marilyn.
“That’s my wife.” Paul tells the police, “I’m looking for my wife.”
“That’s my wife, and he’s pushing me.”
The officer asks the press pack to give the Dawsons’some room’ as they cross Hyde Park and console Marilyn.
Peter hugs the pair before Paul leads their retinue to the train station.
Another member of the Dawson group scuffled with media, with one photographer crying ‘hurt’ after the masked man barged into her.
Justice Ian Harrison declared Dawson guilty just after 3pm, ending a 40-year mystery for Lynette’s family and Sydney’s northern beaches.
The press pack is told to allow the brothers’space’ as they make sluggish progress across Hyde Park and comfort Paul’s wife Marilyn.
“That’s my wife.” Paul shouts at a police officer as a photographer approaches his wife Marilyn.
Peter hugs Paul and Marilyn at one point.
Another member of the Dawson gang scuffled with media, with one photographer screaming out ‘hurt’ after the masked man barged into her.
Dawson shook his head slightly and his twin brother Paul muttered ‘bulls***’ when the judge announced the verdict after 4.5 hours of reciting his reasons.
Two guards handcuffed him. Dawson limped as he was arrested. He’ll be jailed pending sentencing.
Paul Dawson was heard chatting about a woman and whining about never being a witness.
Greg Walsh, Dawson’s attorney, will appeal.
Paul Dawson (shown with Chris) was caught chatting about a woman and moaning about never being called as a witness.
Chris Dawson arrives at the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday to hear Justice Harrison’s judgement on his 1982 murder trial.
Teachers Pet founder Hedley Thomas arrives in court.
In his judgement, Justice Harrison said that losing JC in early 1982 was a motive for murder: ‘I am sure he resolved to kill his wife.’
The evidence doesn’t show how or where Lynette Dawson was slain, he added.
He stated the accused lied about his wife’s whereabouts and his missing her.
Lynette’s brother Greg Simms said her ‘man betrayed her’
‘This is a milestone in our road advocating for Lyn, but the journey is not complete, she’s still missing,’ he said following the verdict.
We still need to get Lyn home, and we’d beg Chris Dawson to do the proper thing and let us do so.
Greg Simms and Merilyn are seen outside court on Tuesday.
Mr Simms said his sister was betrayed by her man.
Dawson killed his wife Lyn.
Justice Harrison ruled Dawson guilty of murder despite not being convinced he ‘bruised Lynette’ or was violent towards her.
He was convinced Lynette is dead, hasn’t been seen or heard from since January 8, 1982, and didn’t leave her home freely.
He was also certain Dawson ‘had a possessive infatuation with’ JC.
Justice Harrison entered court 13A at Sydney’s Supreme Court at 10am on Tuesday, amid tense anticipation from both sides and Lyn’s siblings.
The accused sat up front with brother Peter, with twin Paul and other supporters at the back.
Lynette’s family wore pink in her honor.
Justice Harrison called some of Dawson’s trial evidence ‘fanciful, ridiculous, and dishonest’
Justice Harrison said Lynette Dawson did not leave her home freely and never called Christopher Dawson after 8 January 1982.
His Honour described Dawson as “unfaithful and violent” during a crown case summary.
LYN DAWSON’S DISAPPEARANCE TIMELINE:
Lynette ‘Lyn’ Dawson, 33, disappears from her house on Sydney’s northern beaches in January 1982. Babysitter JC moves in days later.
Chris Dawson, a former Newtown Jets rugby league player, reports his wife missing in February.
An inquest recommends charging a “known person” with Mrs. Dawson’s murder, but the D.P.P. argues the evidence was not examined because no witnesses were called.
2003: A second inquest interviews witnesses and recommends charging a known murderer. Nothing is charged.
2010: NSW Police offer $100,000 for a conviction.
2014: Doubled to $200,000
Strikeforce The Dawsons’ Bayview block is mapped in Scriven.
April 2018 – Scriven detectives request a DPP review.
The Teacher’s Pet podcast about Mrs. Dawson’s disappearance is released in May. 60 million people download it.
July – NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller says police ‘missed the ball’
September – Police dig up the couple’s Bayview backyard but find no bodies or other clues.
Chris Dawson is arrested on the Gold Coast and stays in a watchhouse.
The 70-year-old is extradited to Sydney, where he’s charged with murdering his first wife and appears in court via video link. His lawyer claims he’strenuously asserts his innocence’
Dawson is released from prison on December 17.
Magistrate Michael Allen warns that certain reporting of the case could undermine a fair trial, adding, ‘Someone would have to live in a cave or be quite ignorant to disregard the possibility for unfairness to a person who receives this amount of media scrutiny.’
Magistrate Jacqueline Trad hears evidence before charging Dawson with murder.
Dawson pleads not guilty to murder on April 3, and his lawyers want a permanent stay.
Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Fullerton granted Dawson a nine-month pause to let ‘unrestrained and clamorous’ public discussion over his wife’s disappearance abate before his trial.
The Court of Criminal Appeal refuses to halt proceedings permanently on June 11, 2021.
8.04.2022 The High Court backs lower courts’ decisions not to halt proceedings permanently.
Dawson asks for a judge-alone trial on May 2, and Justice Robert Beech-Jones grants it.
May 9-July 11 – Dawson’s trial is heard by Justice Ian Harrison. Prosecutors allege he was aggressive and abusive to his wife and killed her to be with JC. Dawson’s lawyers cited witnesses who saw her alive after January 1982.
August 30 – Dawson is convicted guilty of murder.
Justice Ian Harrison concluded Lynette Dawson did not leave her Bayview house voluntarily.
The judge also said Dawson’s brother-in-law Ross Hutchins fabricated an alleged sighting of Lynette in Gladesville months after her disappearance.
His Honour ruled that none of the other sightings were authentic.
She wasn’t mentally unstable and loved her kids.
She hoped. She still loved her cheating husband.
It’s implausible that she would leave her husband’s automobile and vanish. It’s absurd.
Justice Harrison called Dawson’s defence case full of lies and ‘ludicrous’ claims for more than four hours.
PODCAST FROM TEACHER’S PET
Hedley Thomas, a Teacher’s Pet podcaster, said he didn’t think Chris Dawson would admit to killing Lynette, but he hopes he will eventually and lead them to her remains.
Award-winning podcast about journalist’s disappearance
He said prosecutors did a ‘great job with a circumstantial case.
Police inquiry has been criticized. He said (Lyn) was regarded as a runaway in dubious circumstances.
He added if Lyn Dawson disappeared today, there would be a’strike force and a major focus on the spouse.’
Chris Dawson would’struggle in jail…but he’s had 40 years of freedom,’ he added.
Her sister-in-law Merilyn and brother Greg Simms arrive in pink on Tuesday.
Lynette Dawson had trouble conceiving and doted on her two girls with Chris Dawson, who were 4 and 2 when she disappeared in 1982.
Justice Harrison said he was inclined to believe ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ that Chris Dawson’s testimony that he had received a call from Lyn the day after his wife’s disappearance was a fabrication.
Justice Harrison found Dawson’s accounts of phone calls from his wife after her disappearance to be ‘lies’
I reject Lynette Dawson… Justice Harrison said she’d keep in touch with the individual who prompted her departure. “The claim…is ludicrous.”
The judge found JC’s testimony mostly reliable and believed her claim of being groomed for a sexual relationship.
Dawson’s claim that their sexual relationship didn’t resume until April 1982 ‘cannot be genuine,’ he claimed.
Peter, the accused’s brother, scuffles with Chris Dawson and lawyer Greg Walsh outside the court on Tuesday.
He found that JC’s evidence was not tainted by her divorce from him years later.
Justice Harrison dismissed JC and Robert Silkman’s testimony that the accused discussed hiring a ‘hitman’ to kill Lynette Dawson.
Justice Harrison said the crown proved Chris Dawson decided to leave his wife for JC.
‘I’m convinced Mr. Dawson was obsessed with JC and feared losing her. He said he ended his marriage to be with JC.
That doesn’t imply he killed his wife.
He called unreliable two women’s accounts of Lynette Dawson’s claimed abuse by the accused.
Teacher’s Pet influenced the women, he said.
However, he found Julie Andrew’s testimony that Chris Dawson pushed Lynette against a trampoline and screamed at her true.
A second courtroom was opened to accommodate the media and supporters at the verdict.
First time in the trial, the accused’s twin brother Paul appeared in court, and a cameraman and the twins’ older brother Peter scuffled outside.
Chris Dawson at his Sunshine Coast home on Sunday before flying to Sydney for the judge’s verdict on his first wife’s murder.
Chris Dawson with his daughter in the 1970s, before Lyn’s abduction in 1982.
After seven weeks on bail, Chris Dawson left his Sunshine Coast home in Queensland to fly to Sydney for the verdict.
Dawson wore an Easts Rugby Union shirt and welcomed his daughter Shanelle to his home on Sunday for the grand finals at Coogee Oval.
Dawson and his twin brother Paul played for Easts before joining Newtown Jets in 1972.
Justice Harrison conducted a judge-alone trial and will explain why.
Shanelle Dawson, who was 4 when her mother disappeared, visited her father’s Sunshine Coast house before he left.
Mr. Dawson has a damaged hip and a possible brain injury, according to his defense.
The verdict is particularly significant for the family of Lyn Dawson, a 33-year-old mother of two who disappeared in 1982.
Pat Jenkins, Greg Simms, Renee Simms, and David Jenkins, Lyn’s niece and nephew, have had their lives on pause for the 10-week trial, the weeks since as Justice Harrison deliberated, and the decades since Lyn disappeared.
His Easts polo shirt is outdated, and the weekend’s results were inconclusive.
Easts beat Sydney University in third grade, tied old foe Randwick 13-13, then beat Randwick 21-17 in first grade Colts.
Dawson isn’t a club member and hasn’t visited Easts since 2009.
Chris Dawson, 74, pictured on the Sunshine Coast last weekend before his murder trial verdict.
Chris and Lynette Dawson were married for 12 years before she disappeared after his romance with a schoolgirl.
Chris Dawson was ‘besotted’ with JC, his teenage babysitter and second wife, who testified about his domineering behavior at trial.
Mr. Dawson’s eldest daughter Shanelle, who was 4 when her mother disappeared, was spotted packing her car as she left his house on Sunday.
Shanelle sobbed on national television four years ago, adding, “It’s not looking good for my father.”
Chris Dawson was accused with Lyn Dawson’s murder in late 2018 and has maintained his innocence.
Lynette Dawson’s disappearance from her Bayview home on Sydney’s northern beaches was the topic of the hit podcast, The Teacher’s Pet.
Crown prosecutor Craig Everson SC alleged Mr. Dawson murdered his first wife and disposed of her body to have a ‘unfettered connection’ with their adolescent babysitter, JC.
Whatever Tuesday’s verdict, Lynette Dawson’s family still hopes to find her remains.
Chris Dawson and Lynette Simms as youthful sweethearts before her 1982 disappearance.
Mr Dawson, twice JC’s age, became infatuated with her and had a sexual affair, taking her into the family home after Lyn disappeared.
Mr Everson’s circumstantial case included that the accused disposed of Lynette Dawson during a ‘window of calm isolation’ before or after seeing Lyn’s mother at the pool and collecting JC from northern NSW.
A former Newtown Jets teammate and his second wife both said Mr. Dawson suggested hiring a hitman to kill Lyn.
JC said Mr. Dawson ‘groomed’ her, then ‘placed’ her in the house and marital bed, where she became a’sex slave’, housekeeper, and mother to his two girls.
Lynette Dawson with Chris in the early years of their courtship when they planned a life together which was cut short in 1982.
Lynette’s two daughters appeared for a portrait artist who would draw them, only to find out Lyn had vanished and Chris didn’t want them.
Lyn’s wedding and engagement rings, clothes, eyewear, and nursing badges were in the residence.
Lynette Dawson’s friends, colleagues, neighbors, and an employee claimed they saw her with injuries, heard her allege her husband assaulted her, or saw him do so.
Pauline David, Mr. Dawson’s lawyer, maintained that the young mother departed of her own free will and was still alive after not contacting her mother or any family since January 1982.
Ms David listed five alleged sightings, including in Gladesville, a Sydney suburb, a hospital, and a hotel near Lake Macquarie.
Ms. David speculated Lyn Dawson may have ‘made a new life,’ died, or committed suicide.
Lyn Dawson’s family said they won’t give up on recovering her remains despite Justice Harrison’s judgment.
David Jenkins tweeted this weekend, ‘After 40 years, on Tuesday we’ll find out if Lyn’s murderer had enough evidence.
Until Lyn returns, this isn’t over.