Former Sydney schoolteacher and rugby league star Chris Dawson has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for the historical murder of his wife Lynette, ending a decades-long campaign for justice.
The 74-year-old, in failing health, was told by the judge he will “probably die in jail”. He will be 92 when he is first eligible for parole after 18 years in prison, in August 2040.
Dawson was found guilty in August this year of murdering his wife in 1982 in order that he might have an unfettered relationship with a high school student who was also his babysitter, anonymised before the court as JC.
His wife, Lynette Dawson, went missing from the couple’s marital home on Sydney’s northern beaches in January 1982. Her body has never been found despite extensive police searches.
Her family has pleaded with Dawson to reveal where her body is.
Lynette Dawson’s disappearance was the subject of the globally successful podcast The Teacher’s Pet, which was downloaded more than 28m times around the world and was seen as critical in re-animating stalled police investigations and bringing pressure to bear on authorities to lay charges. Dawson argued the widespread notoriety brought by the podcast meant he could not receive a fair trial.
On Friday in the New South Wales supreme court, Dawson heard his sentence in silence, sitting alone in the dock, wearing a green prison-issue tracksuit.
Justice Ian Harrison told the court Dawson killed his wife for the “selfish and cynical purpose” of allowing him an unfettered relationship with JC.
“Lynette Dawson was faultless and undeserving of her fate ... she was also completely unsuspecting.
“Lynette Dawson was treated by her husband … as completely dispensable.”
The judge said he could not say how Lynette Dawson died, but said he was satisfied her husband killed her in their home. He described Dawson’s crime as premeditated and planned, a “self-indulgent brutality”.
In handing down his sentence, justice Harrison said he took into account Dawson’s age and failing health.
“Mr Dawson is not old by contemporary standards but the reality is that he will not live to reach the end of his non-parole period.
“I recognise that the unavoidable prospect is that Mr Dawson will probably die in jail.”
Over four decades, three separate police investigations were launched into Lynette Dawson’s disappearance and murder. Two coronial inquests recommended charges be laid, one recommending charges against Chris Dawson. But it was not until 2018 that he was finally charged with murdering his wife.
Outside the court, Lynette Dawson’s brother Greg Simms condemned the man who murdered his sister, and rejected his name.
“Chris Dawson discarded her, the Dawsons disregarded her. From today, we would like her to be remembered as Lynette Joy Simms.”
Simms said no sentence could ever be long enough for deliberately taking another person’s life, “but we hope Chris Dawson lives a long life in order to serve that sentence”.
“We really didn’t believe this day would ever come. What we need now is to find Lyn and put her to rest.”
But Simms said he did not expect Dawson to ever reveal the location of Lynette Dawson’s body, saying his sister would only be discovered “if someone comes across a grave or human remains”.
Dawson’s lawyer, Greg Walsh SC, told reporters “there are no winners in this case”.
“For Lynette’s family, they have lost a sister, daughter, and mother. So far as Mr Dawson is concerned, he knows he will – in all probability – spend the rest of his life in jail.”
Walsh said Dawson “maintains his innocence”, and insists he did not kill his wife.
Beseeched by Lynette Dawson’s family to reveal the whereabouts of her body, Walsh said Dawson had stated: “I don’t know where she is … I didn’t murder her”.
During his trial, Dawson’s legal team argued there was an alternative explanation for her disappearance: that she left her husband because of his behaviour with JC. He also told police he had spoken to his wife several times by phone after she went missing.
In his judgment, Justice Harrison rejected those explanations, finding it was beyond reasonable doubt Dawson’s guilt was “the only rational inference” to be drawn from circumstantial evidence, despite the absence of a body or forensic evidence.
Dawson was taken from court back to Silverwater prison, from where he is likely to be moved to another prison in NSW. Walsh said Dawson faced regular intimidation in prison from other inmates – including direct threats of violence such as “we’ll cut your throat” – and had been ironically nicknamed “The Teacher’s Pet”, after the podcast that brought the case to widespread public attention.
Homicide squad commander Det Supt Danny Doherty paid tribute to police investigators, but gave particular credit to Lynette Dawson’s family for their unstinting efforts to seek justice.
“The family and friends of Lynette Dawson never gave up hope, they’ve been the driving force behind this.”
Doherty said Lynette Dawson’s case would remain open, and urged anyone with information – particularly about the location of her body – to come forward to police.
“Obviously, this is unfinished business. The case is still open because we haven’t found her.”
On the courthouse steps, Dawson’s brother was asked if he had any comment to make. He shook his head and did not speak.
The court has heard that Dawson, a former premiership player for the Newtown Jets in the NSW rugby league competition, was in deteriorating health, showing signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain condition often suffered by people who sustain head injuries playing contact sports.
Dawson has filed an appeal against his conviction, expected to be heard next year.
